


Into the Zoo, Out from Utopia

by CondorFire



Series: Universalis [1]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Zootopia Fusion, Anthropomorphic, Artificial Intelligence, Fanfiction, Human, Human in zootopia, Multi, Multiverse, New World, POV Third Person, Post-Zootopia (2016), Science Fiction, Survival, Utopia, Zootopia Police Department
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:47:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 27,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26626189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CondorFire/pseuds/CondorFire
Summary: In a world where a human volunteer, smart, yet bold and lacking common sense, journeys into multi-parallel universes in order to save his nation and kind from extinction, takes an unexpected turn of events and enters a different, exotic world where various anthropomorphic animal species populate "their" Earth. He encounters new challenges everywhere he goes, and only relies on the technology and resources he has to carve through those challenges, and also making allies, while figuring out how to get back home. Yet, more difficulties lie before him in a hostile world where its inhabitants query and enmity the lone visitor, as fear of the unknown consumes the inhabitants. Of course, one problem eventually leads to a catch-22, and different worlds with different cultures, different civilization, different morals, different "species" collide for the worst.
Relationships: Judy Hopps/Nick Wilde
Series: Universalis [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1937008
Comments: 10
Kudos: 17





	1. Author's Note

**Author's Note:**

> To be notified of each chapter's release, follow me on Twitter and Instagram:  
> https://twitter.com/CondorFireWatt  
> https://www.instagram.com/condorfirewatt/
> 
> Check out my Wattpad account for earlier chapter releases:  
> https://www.wattpad.com/user/CondorFire

[ ](https://ibb.co/XbYLzns)

Author's Note

I've always had the idea about humans destroying Earth as we know it, and uses its advanced technology to travel through multiverse universes in order find a Earth-like world to settle and create a better humanity—where they don't destroy nature. But, only to encounter beings that have already inhabit the world. Therefore, a fight for a species survival scenario wages between humans and the primitive inhabitants.

I don't know if using Zootopia's universe for that plot is really cogent, especially for a Disney film. Nevertheless, the other side of me says otherwise.The idea kept nagging me, and I only ignored it, until I found the motivation to write this work of fiction.

And remember, comments and kudos are very supportive. I like to hear some of your feedbacks.

 **Dedication/Disclaimer** : This work is dedicated to Ginnifer Goodwin, whose amazing voice and character brought the animated character, Judy Hopps, into the film, and to Jason Bateman, voicing Nick Wilde in the film, who brought his humorous acting from previous sitcoms and comedies into our smugly animated fox. The characters and ownership of the film do not belong to me—only to Disney. This is only a work of fiction.

 **Summary** : In a world where a human volunteer, smart, yet bold and lacking common sense, journeys into multi-parallel universes in order to save his nation and kind from extinction, takes an unexpected turn of events and enters a different, exotic world where various anthropomorphic animal species populate "their" Earth. He encounters new challenges everywhere he goes, and only relies on the technology and resources he has to carve through those challenges, and also making allies, while figuring out how to get back home. Yet, more difficulties lie before him in a hostile world where its inhabitants query and enmity the lone visitor, as fear of the unknown consumes the inhabitants. Of course, one problem eventually leads to a catch-22, and different worlds with different cultures, different civilization, different morals, different "species" collide for the worst.


	2. Prologue - An Old World

[](https://ibb.co/XbYLzns)

THE SLIGHT RUMBLES under his shoes felt more like a gentle, tender massage than magnetic proposed rail tracks. The maglev train traveling up to speeds of two hundred kilometers-per-hour made its usual stop at Union Station, Washington, D.C. at 4:00 PM. The train's glass platform doors opened with a hiss as the train came to a complete stop on Track Four. Passengers immediately rushed out of the maglev, exiting the train before the platform doors closed again in approximately two minutes on the schedule. By then, the maglev would depart from Union Station to Baltimore, then to Philadelphia, and all along the New England region with loads of passengers traveling on long-distance trips.

The travel time between D.C. to Baltimore would be between three to five minutes by maglev.

He stepped from the train's platform and onto the concrete, white-painted platform while other passengers moved and pushed him aside in the most disinterested manner. He didn't care. City people can be city people, he reminded himself. He was quite acquainted with the fact that in Manhattan people would literally treat you like trash for the littlest of reasons, even if they themselves were ill-starred. It didn't surprise him; the population was staggeringly swelling to its limits and unemployment was skyrocketing alongside it. There's no room for bull and public respect for institutions and authority—particularly government and business—has been declining for decades. People smile who are content and pleased, if not laughing and joking, yet he saw no soul who expressed such. 

He traipsed under a pavilion situated in the middle of Union Station, so the sun wouldn't become a constant nuisance for him. He pauses for a moment, ostensibly took look up at the signs for directions, enjoying the open-air space after the ride. He took out his Samsung Galaxy X-Generation, the new generation of Galaxy smartphones, as the holographic-projected and regular multi-touch screen appeared in front of him. On the multi-touch screen, a previously saved CNN article pops up on his news app. He swipes the screen and the article digitally transfers onto the holographic projection. He adds another holograph page, clicking copy on the news article, pasting it onto the word processor app, and making attachments to the news article. Finally, he felt satisfied, even though, in some form, it felt like stalking. 

_Joint US-European Federation Orbital Missile Shield Treaty_ , the article's headline said. He scoffed in a low tone. It'd been a painful few years, he thought. The program signed by the United States of America and European Federation was a conjunction of satellites orbiting Earth, surveying and detecting any possible threats to the International Worldwide Non-Aggression Pact: the policy passed by the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council stating that "all nations, developed or developing, shall not engage into conflict without a proper cause by the UN Security Council." Of course, as militating and controlling as it was, while countries like the People's Pan-Asian Alliance, Russian Federation, and the Pan-African Republic had officially objected to this program, the higher elites in the Security Council passed the program for "the use of maintaining world peace for future generations to come." 

If there was even a future ahead of them.

Even though the Main Stream Media portrayed the United States and European Federation as allies, the truth was—Trans-Atlantic geopolitical relationships were completely neutral. There has not been any nation in the world that signed permanent alliances with one another; at least, not without sincerity. Either they were neutral or not, relations were opaque with personal dissimulation. Frequently, neutrality was always the best path to take. Hostility only brought political instability, and wars would eventually breakout; massive, horrendous wars, where millions of lives would be sacrificed for little cause and rationality. In the end, learning from past mistakes, there were no winners in advanced warfare, especially when weapons of mass destruction are put to use. 

In truth, the Joint Missile Shield program was certainly a pretext for both the US and Europe to keep each other in check as well as coalesce orbital supremacy from Pan-Asia and Russia, as many analysts would say. 

He kept scrolling up until he came across the _CNN NEWS_ title and date. It was the year 2149 C.E. The world was ruled by five major superpowers. The United States of America, European Federation, Pan-Asian Alliance, Russian Federation, and the Pan-African Republic. Times were desperate. Overpopulation, pollution, wars, and resource depletion have nearly destroyed Earth and everything living Mother Nature had carried for, except humanity. Nations collapsed, along with global economic balances. The strong rose to take on the mantle of control. Society became a turmoil for major unemployment, poverty, crime, and domestic warfare. Nassim Nicholas Taleb's black swan theory proved its undoubted predictions as humanity neglected to solve its problems throughout crucial moments in history. 

Abysmal air quality, from decades of unconstrained industrialization, deforestation, and uncontrolled carbon dioxide and aerosol emissions, became a perilous problem since 2060. Now, levels of air quality were at an irreversible stage, as the outside world became too hazardous for humans of all ages and physiques to breathe in toxic air. Most of Earth's flora and fauna, once majestically symbolizing the planet's green lands, withered and died. Tropospheric ozone toxicity, reaching levels beyond alteration, destroyed sensitive vegetation and flourishing ecosystems. Today, areas where tropical ecosystems once thrived, specifically in Latin and South America, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia, with remaining high biodiversity and fertility, grew in specialized-greenhouse domes known as Bio-Agrio domes.

However, Bio-Agrio domes were not the only facilities with semi-spherical airtight, pressurized structures. In these modern times, cities or other Metropolitan areas were shielded from the barren and toxic environment outside by man-made domes. "Domed Cities," the prosaic term for humanity's coffins. But owing to lack of natural resources and crippling macroeconomics, urban areas with a population under five million found themselves under the exception of dome construction unless it provided invaluable economic, military, and research value. But cities like Louisville, Salt Lake City, Milwaukee, Sacramento, Denver, et cetera, in the US would only become ghost towns without domes. And cities under qualified population recognition but with major economic, military, and research value: Orlando, Seattle, Atlanta, Fort Bragg, Fort Knox, Colorado Springs, Charleston, Honolulu, et cetera, received certification for dome construction.

The world's governments continue to deal with very little stable infrastructure and instituted heavy welfare programs in place to help the less fortunate. Some trillions of dollars in funds were used to construct self-sustaining habitable zones to mitigate overcrowding in domed, choked cities. However, in some cases such as the Montana Radiation Zone, they had to abandon their work and redirect their efforts at ameliorating the mounting socio-economic conditions in urban centers. Some governments have also been alleged to cover up preventative disasters such as a Cholera epidemic in Atlanta in an effort to induce population control. 

Space agencies and corporations involved themselves in beneficial joint cooperations, launching commercial mining operations on the moon and Mars, followed by some outposts scattered across the solar system. But it still wasn't enough. Although humankind had established permanent colonies on both the moon and Mars that were economically profitable, those worlds were still dependent on Earth to send round-the-clock supplies, making them unsustainable to protract a functioning biosphere indefinitely, and thus unreliable for expanding the human race. All attempts at terraforming Venus and Mars had failed; as for the Jovian System, or any other worlds outside the habitable zone, they were either frozen in eternal darkness or else baking in the face of a star, with no environment remotely capable of sustaining life.

The reality was an unparalleled appropriation of nature where humans took more than they gave back. Humanity played a dangerous game of Russian roulette with the only world it had. The world was dead. 

Mankind simply didn't know it yet; or pretended not to acknowledge the latter.

That was the bare truth of it, and it pleased the misanthrope who considered it to no little end. There were things to be done yet, debts to be paid and webs to be spun or broken, but the weight of the inevitable had settled across the way and weft of the world. Time was running out, and the planet was all but bled white.

He peaks from the pavilion's edge, looking up at the dome structure reaching up to a maximum one thousand feet, or three hundred and four meters, high from its pivotal center. Different cities had a variety of domes with disparate heights. The highest in the US resided in New York City, reaching two thousand and five hundred feet high. The highest in the world was in Shanghai—reaching seven thousand and seven hundred feet tall. If there was one thing mankind can still pride itself on, it's structural engineering. 

He turns his Smartphone off, leaves the pavilion, making an intersection between the food court and main lobby. He smelled the hot and steaming scent of beef soup from a bistro called Parisian Café & Wine Deserts, a little French-styled restaurant squeezed in-between China Kitchen and Olive Garden. He felt his stomach growl, not having a decent meal since this afternoon, besides rationed granola bars he bought at Fort Hamilton. Resisting the urge for a quick bite, he rushed past the bistro, escaping the irresistible smell of food, and walks to another section of tracks. The Southern Station, constructed fifty years ago when maglevs were becoming the face of rail transportation in America, which the SWATR (South Washington, D.C. Atlantic Trans Rapid) trains traveled from D.C. to East Coast cities down south. There, he needed to catch his next maglev to the Arlington, Virginia/D.C. border, but most of the District of Columbia now. 

As he sat down on a bench under the shadow of a photovoltaic pavilion, the mixed blue and green color gleaned from above, he felt an instant vibrate in his pocket. Taking out his Galaxy X, he opened his message onto the holographic projection. 

MESSAGE SENT BY JULIAN ANDERSON: 

_Hey, Ryan, where's the meeting again?_

He opened up Messenger and typed in his response.

_At the Pentagon. Level Seven. The room that looks like a cubicle._

He didn't even know why he was typing this kind of information via SMS messaging. Really, she should be asking a superior for that kind of information rather than him. He hastily typed another message on the regular multi-touch screen.

_We shouldn't be texting sensitive stuff like this by message. Why couldn't you have done this through the intranet?_

_Idk...???_

He just loved that answer from a woman who was smarter than she looked beautiful. The playful naïvety was both a curse and a blessing. She sent another message.

_Besides, who else knows about this than us, the CIA, and government?_

_JUST SHUT UP AND END THIS CHAT!!_

Ryan closed Messenger, then opens up Internet Connection, connecting to a free WiFi hotspot where he sat. He searches Union Station D.C., opening up its official website, and clicks an icon that said 'Train Schedule' on its contents. He taps search, typing on the multi-touch screen. Instantly, the search marked a maglev on Track One-Two-Five that would depart from D.C. to Arlington County at 5:10 PM. Ugh! He knew four-thirty and afterward was rush hour in the District of Columbia. But again, what choice did he have?

_Today is the day_ , he thought. 

For six months he'd been training for this moment. Volunteered to be subjected to some of the greatest physical and psychological challenges imaginable, he never realized why he was undergoing exercises for. In preparation for his mission, he spent those six months undergoing a painstaking line of training. Aside from endless fitness, psychological and medical evaluations, he trained in aerodynamics, airmanship, biology, combat and even some other backup duties. All Ryan knew was that this mission he'd been preparing so strenuously the past few months is going to change the fate of humanity forever. He was told this by Doctor Lilah Helienson, a Ph.D. Harvard alumni in theoretical physics, cosmology, and quantum computing, and one of many overseers of his mission.

He looked around and saw the faces of every individual in Union Station. The casual expressions on their faces. But casual these days meant misery and despair. In a hostile world where everything, except electronics, electricity, and digital devices, was limited, the average human barely gets by. Food, water, even personal freedoms were limited to prioritize the needs of the collective population. Even air was limited, profited by natural monopolies. If this mission meant the future prosperity of humanity, staring at children once again eating candy, playing in flourish parks, and elderly relaxing peaceful, then he would do it—if it meant coasting his life—whether that would happen or not.


	3. Chapter One - Average Day at Work

[](https://ibb.co/XbYLzns)

"SO THAT WILL be eight-forty-seven, sir."

The antelope exchanged currency with the fox behind the counter of steady-going donuts and coffee café, while business was slower than usual today. The fox took the brown paper bag with The Big Donut labeled on each end in one paw, and two styrofoam coffee cups in the other, trying hard not to drop either item. He didn't want to have to pay another nine-forty-seven of coffee and irresistible, warm glazed donuts. He was already short on rent, and his "new" job didn't seem to help resolve his everlasting problem.

But, for now, even for a fox like Nick Wilde, everything was a breeze that never seems to bite him in the rear...or at least not completely.

Nick Wilde, a previous con-artist at heart for many years, cheating and using classic confidence tricks to make decent wealth in the massive, eponymous city of Zootopia. He was a pro at it, too. However, a previous con-artist told more about his story than anything else. Now, he worked for the place in all of Zootopia he never thought he'd be working for, the Zootopia Police Department (ZPD). How ironic the situation became for the fox. The idea struck more like laughter than a burden to him. How ironic his situation got him into the law enforcement agency, not to mention the trials, challenges, errors, and resolutions that'd awaited.

The "Night Howler" Crisis, he witnessed in person, would be known as the greatest crisis that had ever emerged within Zootopia. He remembered. Fourteen animals going missing, only to be savaged, prey-eating predators that reverted back to their ancestor's natural instincts of survival of the fittest, which would eventually open to a stunning species-supremacist conspiracy within certain aspects of the massive prey population in Zootopia. In the end, former Zootopia mayor, Leodore Lionheart, and short-lasted successor, Dawn Bellwether, were arrested and imprisoned. And Zootopia returned back to harmony and prosperity between predator and prey once again. Still, minor prejudice and conflicts between the two different animals continued to linger within the enormous city surrounded by four diverse biomes that correspond to the perfect utopia.

The glass doors to the ZPD station swung open as Nick let himself inside. He passed by many police officers at work from the howling wolf to the mighty elephant. Sometimes the world felt larger than it appeared to him. The law enforcement business was a very dynamic and ample place with the largest, toughest animals you could see bringing in crooks and administering the law. But being the first fox officer, even if he was hardly the size as other police officers, was a huge accomplishment for both Nick and the other smaller animals that wouldn't receive the same respect as larger ones. To him—and his partner—you can be anything in Zootopia.

Approaching the work stations where officers answered calls and filed police reports, he found his partner hard at work and sorting backlogs of paperwork while focusing on the digital files on her workstation PC. Multitasking, but keenly and conscientiously, became a habit for his rabbit, Judy Hopps.

Just as he approached her workstation, the phone rings and the rabbit instantly answers.

"Zootopia Police Department, what's your emergency?" She said enthusiastically. But shortly, her jovial smile soon turns into a disappointing frown. Her ears dropped. "Oh, excuse me, sir. You have the wrong number...Yes, thank you, too." She hung up.

"Not your average emergency call, isn't it, Carrots," Nick said, sitting smugly on her desk. She turned to the smugly fox, sitting so casually on her own personal space with a grin on his muzzle. But Nick, since the time they first met, always had that smug, sly character of a devoted con-artist. And he still did. She gives a half-serious and half-joking grin back.

"Didn't you have other things to do, besides slacking off at the Big Donut?" she said.

"Hey..." he took a bite from the paper bag, glaze covered inside, "get a dozen-donut bag for four-forty-nine on Glazed Tuesday. You can't argue with that."

"Yeah...except when a five dollar bill 'mysteriously' goes missing..." The fox's next bite was slow, turning his full attention back to his partner, "it becomes evidence." 

The rabbit desperately reached and snapped the bag away before the fox would have a chance to take off with the remainder of her five dollars. The fox fell flat on the floor, after failing to reclaim the hot dough in a bag. With a confident smile, Judy took a donut from the bag. Foxes were clever and sly for their actions, but the rabbit could do more than what a fox does. She outsmarted him several times, during the Night Howler incident and afterward, taking advantage of his smug character for her counterparts. They had two specific nicknames they call each other many times; and shortly, his nickname was heard from the rabbit.

"Dumb fox."

He snickers, nearly admitting defeat. But it wasn't the end. "Sly rabbit."

Truthfully, as hard as it was to bare the minor humiliation occasionally, he enjoyed his partner's company to the fullest...or at least mostly. They'd worked side-by-side for three months (after the Night Howler incident) as on-duty cops for the ZPD. Prey and predator working together. Some may call it a _non compos mentis_ relationship. But again, they were living in Zootopia, the exact place where prey and predator once came together and put aside their differences to live in everlasting harmony. The Bellwether fiasco and her species-supremacist scheme nearly extinguished the thousand-year-old peace between prey and predator. But, once again, the conspiracy was ultimately uncovered. Bellwether and her sheep associates were put behind bars for good.

Justice was served at the end.

Judy returned to her seat, while Nick stood up, and scoots one of the coffee cups toward his partner, saying so casually, "Here's your decaf, Carrots."

"Thanks, Nick." She smiled, then redirecting back to her work.

"Whatcha doing?" He just had to get into her personal work space, leaning over the desk and watching her with that occasional grin on his face. Invading her own personal space began to annoy the rabbit. He had his own workstation. Why did he have to come to her's?

"Working on a temporary assignment in Bunnyburrow," she answers.

"Wait. Is it that investigation in Bunnyburrow about some lone carrot farmer saying to have contacted an alien machine sent from space?" She could tell from the skepticism in his voice as the fox seemed questionable about the minor case she volunteered to take. The idea itself sounded more out-of-this-world and far-fetched than a predator falling in love with a prey. But it was her district—her home. She knew the rural community by heart. Something had happened a few weeks ago, even as the investigation was called off for being flat-out insane and skeptical.

"Yeah," the rabbit said plainly, then she saw the look on Nick's face. "It's my hometown, Nick. They wouldn't just make up stories just to make themselves look like crazies on the news—"

"Which they did." Judy didn't seem too happy after that comment. "Look, Carrots, just think about it. Okay? How often does the average animal get to see a flying alien machine, or whatever, in the middle of the night with nobody around to witness it? And what did it do? The guy said it scanned him and told him he was, I don't know, the 'living form of a healthy stimulus organism in an Earth-like environment.' No offense, but I think those carrot farmers need to get out of the sun for a little while."

"Watch it, Nick. Where do you think I came from?"

"I said no offense."

The next thing he knew, he had a whole glazed donut shoved suddenly into his muzzle, as Judy looked at him with her own mischievous, smug grin on her face. The action was a bit childish for her own character, being a serious, hard-working law enforcer. But, at the same time, it felt good to finally shut her partners big mouth for once.

"Have a donut—Officer."

****************************************

They were partners and friends ever since the Night Howler Crisis that unfollowed with a stunning truth in the last few months. Believing Mayor Lionheart as the mastermind behind the disappearance of fourteen diverse animals across Zootopia and conducting involuntary medical experiments on their savage behavior, both he and his partner would never have guessed the actual mastermind behind the predators' fierce, savage behavior. Nick hardly knew the deep details of the conspiracy. The fox only knew the basics. In truth, his partner, Judy Hopps, made the discovery of the Night Howler flower, the species-supremacist scheme, and, only figuring it out at the last second, unraveled the true mastermind behind the conspiracy, newly elected mayor, Dawn Bellwether.

Now, or at least several months ago, Nick graduated at Zootopia Academy as the first-ever fox officer in law enforcement. Not an ideal career he'd always dreamed of, noting the times the fox scammed people for money on the streets since he was twelve. Nevertheless, knowing that he had a place—without prey or any larger mammal telling him otherwise—where he felt most important, just like his dream of being a local Junior Ranger Scout when he was only a kit.

But the only nightmare about being an enforcer of the law in a massive metropolis was the massive amount and backlogs of paperwork needed to be sort and accounted for. Nick, like any officer in the ZPD, was no exception, complaining lazily about the amount of work whenever his partner was around. But at the moment, she was with a rookie, a wolf fresh from the Academy whose name he'd forgotten, somewhere in the Rainforest District. And he, while his partner was most likely having fun training the rookie with the basics of law enforcement guidelines and working on real field cases in the city, was stuck with the remains of trees after the mechanical and chemical procession with ink prints on them in front of the fox.

It did make sense for Judy to teach the rookie about police guidelines, graduating with the highest average in her class both physically and academically, then Nick. It wasn't that the fox graduated by luck; his average was merely the level of expectation. It was his character to overuse jocks on the job, speaking his opinion too openly, and lacking some decent common sense. Some joked about it, but his excessive use of "taking" selfies at work or in his personal leisure made him look a tad, as some said, unprofessional.

As the fox was filing paperwork, he felt the instant vibrate, and another, in his pocket. He reached with his paw out of habit, pulling it out, and unlocking his smartphone. Nick looked at the notifications bar, finding his received message from his partner. It was a selfie with her and the rookie with Rainforest District's moist, tropical trees and damped buildings in the background. At the bottom of the photo, the rabbit sent a comment, saying:

 _#Rainforest District. Wish you could be here._ Nick grinned at that, thinking, _Anything to get away from paperwork._

In return, he took a selfie with a bored facial expression, which wasn't that hard to do. Then he added a comment to the picture, I would trade your place for anything. But hey, you actually made a friend...JK! He added two emojis of identical foxes dying from laughter, before hitting send.

Nick placed his phone flat on his workstation desk, half-expecting for the rabbit to reply. Most of the time she wouldn't, just depending on how slow work is, which, for her, work would never be slow or less enthusiastic then it is right now.

 _LOL, Nick._ She added two emojis of identical rabbits smirking and winking.

****************************************

He took the glazed donut from his muzzle and ate it like a normal civilized animal. He grinned. This time amusingly, knowing that a tad humiliation would never bring him down. He'll eventually get her back, of course, not anything harsh or hurtful. It was a bit stereotypical to say rabbits were very emotional animals; but how else would you describe a rabbit's inner temperament? Judy was a fire-spirited rabbit before and after joining the ZPD, but she was also that sensible person who wants to make something right and fair. The fox knew that from past experiences with her. Nick probably knew more about her then what he presumed the first time they met.

He still couldn't believe the look and reaction she'd expressed after Jumbeaux's Café.

Nick met her gaze as Judy met his, as her PC still ran, as time flew by, as the tiger sitting across from Judy's workstation, watching them for a while, got the wrong impression before redirecting back to his work with a large, smug grin.

"So?"

"So, what?"

"Have you even took a sip from your coffee? The one I bought." He placed a five dollar bill on her desk. And at that very moment, the rabbit recognized the bill from its wrinkled and curved edges. Nick grabbed the bag of donuts and took another bite in triumph.

She felt completely fooled, now.


	4. Chapter Two - The Salvation of Humanity

[](https://ibb.co/XbYLzns)

THE PENTAGON'S CONCOURSE had high and low ranking military officers and civilian officials conversing between one another that echoed in the large, concentric complex. Ryan, having been in the Pentagon more than he could count, whenever he'd trained for his long-awaited mission in the lower levels, found himself on the Southeast side, concentric ring E, the second floor, exiting the Pentagon Metro Station. This area is mainly where visitors entered the building, as a series of bays and corridors (corridor one and ten on the Southeast side) intersected each of the five concentric rings that made the pentagon-shaped structure.

The two hundred and eight-year-old stripped classicist building seemed like an ancient building like the White House every time Ryan stared from the Northwest side of concentric ring E, overlooking D.C. and its tall skyscrapers across the Potomac River, the stretch that meanders between Arlington and Washington and teems with filth and toxins, and its surface bubbles with thick, white foam. The Pentagon was the headquarters of the Department of Defense where Army, Navy, and Air Force specialists, strategists, military, and government officials met and discussed information classified from the public. Informally known as "Ground Zero," a presumption that the complex would be targeted, along with other government buildings in D.C., in the outbreak of "Total War of Annihilation," a name given for today's advanced wars that could easily lead to humanity's extinction without further details.

If this was Ground Zero, then this place is the most secured facility in the entire world—but also the most dangerous—he surmised.

Ryan neared a Pentagon Force Protection Agency officer in full uniform, standing guard at the metro station entrance, looking bored and careless like his colleagues around him. Ryan flashed his holographic clearance card at the officer, who simply waved him off, giving him access without further questioning.

 _This place might as well be a perfect target for terrorists,_ he thought bitterly. It wouldn't be hard to place a pyro-sonic bomb in a complex like this and get away with it!

Then he remembered _Yawm ad-Din_., "The Day of Judgement." Within a few minutes, fifty metropolitan cities including Cairo, Tehran, Baghdad, Kuwait City, Gaza, Riyadh, Dammam, Dubai, and, of course, Mecca, were completely wiped off the face of the earth simultaneously by limited nuclear attacks. A hundred million died within minutes, and millions more died from the fallout or the subsequent wars that broke out between remaining Middle Eastern countries who speculated each nation conspired with terrorist cells.

Of course, the worst incident in humanity's history occurred nearly ninety years ago. Now the Middle East was a radioactive, godforsaken wasteland of forgotten rich, ancient histories and horrific, nonstop, conflicts. This was all before its well-to-do deposits of crude oil and natural gas production, fossil fuels that once powered the superpowers of the world, now dried up and left in the long annals of history.

Ryan shook the dreadful thought from his mind, chills running down his arms, imagining the Internet pictures of the Middle Eastern cities in ruin with the thought of ghosts of its inhabitants still lingering all around shattered roads and buildings. Even though Ryan wasn't too religious, he wondered what made this direct action justified?

It was probably better not to question it.

On his way through the two-story cafeteria, renovated fifty years ago as part of the Pentagon's second Renovation Program, adding new underground facilities, a new major memorial site, and bypasses and maglev rail lines, until a hand pressed suddenly on his shoulder, directing his full attention to a brunette in a black business suit. When he turned to face her, she offered him a warm smile.

"It has been a long time, Ryan," she said.

"Yeah, I guess it is, Julian," he replied. "Once upon a time your big brother journeyed on a perilous mission to save humanity, and the beautiful maiden in black."

She chuckled. Her brother, four years apart, always read stories to her before going to bed. It illuminated the world for her in her childhood, besides enforcing survival knowledge on how to conserve food and water at school, and holographic billboards that always read: _A Family of Two/Overpopulation Equals EXTINCTION!_

"Here." She hands him a holographic access card with multi-color patches on the handheld grip. "Each person in the Pentagon receives an access card with different colors, each resembling certain clearance to secured areas. The multi-color allows you to have clear access to every facility in the Pentagon, and nobody will question you about it. Follow me. The conference is about to start."

Without anything else to say, Julian turned and began walking. Ryan, still baffled about the basic idea of the access card he held without firm grip, didn't question his younger sister. She'd been working so vigorously for the Pentagon the last three years, now. Her rank resided with high officials, which, in his opinion, impressed him. He envied her, too; but he was still happy for his sister, serving their country in honor and pride.

What else could make him happier?

****************************************

He found the conference room, smaller than any room he had ever sat in, so chilling. Even with a suit and tie on, the room was freezing. It was nearly a box room with no windows and a single door. The ceiling A/C vent was blowing onto Ryan, as some twigs from his dark brushed-up fade hair danced erratically. He wanted to move, but the Director of National Intelligence and the White House Chief of Staff, who was representing the president, sat on the opposite side of him, staring firmly and unexpressive. Ryan was afraid of the vicious scolding he would receive for disrespectful changing seats the Chief of Staff had assigned for each member in the conference, as the sixty-four-year-old Executive official sat on the far end of the oval polished table.

Sitting on his side, Julian with an envelope full of files ready when needed. Doctor Helienson, the fifty-two-year-old woman in her lab coat and a silky, gray skirt with a holographic projection at the ready. Helienson was the type of woman that wanted work done before she would allow herself or anyone to relax, but her tender warmth within her shinned a totally different character, as Ryan remembered their previous time when he underwent his training. She was also known for her love of high heels. He would never forget those high heels she wore twenty-four/seven for the last few months.

Chief of Staff started the meeting without preamble. 

"This conference will perhaps be the last time we'll every be speaking." His gaze turns to Ryan, who sat without a change of his expression, casual and phlegmatic. "I, and the President, are inestimably grateful for your service to your country, and to all of mankind, Mr. Anderson. I wish the President could be here to say that himself."

 _Yeah...but I'm sure I'll get all the fame and applause once I get back from my mission,_ Ryan thought smugly. "But what is my mission, if I may ask...respectfully, Mr. Chief."

It was perhaps a bit early to ask that question.

"Ryan," Helienson spoke, "for years mankind has always looked upon the stars, searching for a new world to claim, as many of Congress' legislators believe colonizing the moon and terraforming Mars will save humanity from extinction. But the truth is, it won't. We were too blind to see the true path to humanity's survival."

"What do you mean?"

"What Doctor Helienson is saying," Julian interrupts, "is that space colonization is not the way to go and certainly not a viable path to ensure mankind's existence. We don't have the material resources or governing stability to do that."

"Without the governments of Earth enforcing iron rule, those colonies would be fighting over raw resources found on each individual planet or moon. In fact, it's our primary objective to keep order in the colonies and prevent each planetary dependency from starting small-scale interstellar conflicts with each other for little rationality," Chief of Staff said, somewhat helping Ryan to comprehend the stressful supervision of space colonies.

"Then what is mankind's 'true path' to survival?" He added Helienson's term into his question; hopefully she would help simplify the Gordin details. So far, he had no precise objective. He only had the chitchat of his sister, a scientist, and the Chief of the White House around him, explaining his mission gradually and mildly like a parent explaining something to a kid.

"Multiverse parallel universe," Doctor Helienson answered. "The ability to travel through matter to infinite number of universes beyond ours."

Ryan had heard about paradoxes from time traveling to dimensional black holes...but this was the paradox of them all. Traveling to parallel universes or worlds? The idea was both absurd and illogical, as it would break several laws of nature and physics, which that would utterly be unfeasible to alternate. Even space colonization and terraforming planets seemed more reasonable than this!

"What?" By the tone of his voice, he was baffled.

"As hard as it seems to be," Director of National Intelligence spoke, "Doctor Helienson has formulated a quantum mechanic that could open up a wormhole through space-time, accessing the most inconceivable journeys where no man has ever encountered in human history."

"Yes; after four years of conducting subatomic experiments, my colleagues and I discovered a fracture in space-time that could, theoretically, open a wormhole to other universes...like a metro traveling through tunnels in order for us to reach its destination."

"But unlike a metro, where the tunnels had a pre-planned layout for their destinations, wormholes are very—I repeat, very—unpredictable. We can get you through the wormhole, but where you go depends, not just the passage through fractured space, but the actions you take while journeying," Julian said stern and firmly. But she was clearly trying to protect her brother from the unknown facts that lied ahead of him.

What's with the riddles?

"Okay...so, basically I'm traveling into a passage through space-time, not knowing where I go, but that I need to be cautious of unforeseen perils ahead of me, to infinite worlds with no physical data. But may I add," nobody objected, "what are the possibilities for physical law?"

"Well, I can't say for sure...a universe may have any number of gravitational strengths, diverse environments, energy may behave differently, or matter here might not be existent in other universes," Helienson replied, clasping her hands together. But before Ryan could speak his opinion, which he had many, the Ph.D. doctor spoke once more in haste. "However, we had a probe sent through the Terminus to determine what point in space the fracture led. We successfully brought it back unharmed. Then, after deducing the possible universe the fracture led, we sent a drone with an extraterrestrial, environmental data-gathering analysis module to the world. The results were—extraordinary. A complete Earth-like world. Terrestrial environment related to ours--well, a few unknown species of planets--fresh and salty water, same atmosphere, abiotic matters remain similar, and unidentifiable living organisms."

Speaking nonstop, the doctor took a deep breath and wheezed. 

_Careful, madam, we don't want you to have a respiratory seizure before I go on a possible life-threatening mission,_ Ryan thought. _I can't believe I'm saying this, but you're too important to me._

"Officer Anderson," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to his former position as a CIA operative. During his career, he began overseeing domestic operations and countering espionage, before actually conducting espionage missions and black operations in foreign countries like Russia and the People's Pan-Asian Alliance. In the climax of his career, his most dedicated work was in the Third Somalian Civil War of 2148, officially establishing his reputation amongst the Central Intelligence Agency. "Your record is nothing but with outstanding accomplishments throughout your school years and professional career. From what I hear, this mission requires someone smart, cunning, quick-thinking, and strong for the job."

"We'd planned out your parallel universal journey sequence, even simulated it with state-of-the-art quantum computers made by D-Wave Systems and Microsoft. And the computers generated a ninety-five percent chance of survival," the Chief of Staff said.

"With a five percent chance of death?" he questioned.

Ryan couldn't blame himself for questioning his chances through space-time, not that he had any concerns, the former agent was merely curious. He'd been through many death-related scenarios throughout his career; more then he could count. And Ryan had gained the undoubted knowledge and experience of what death would attempt to take. Since, from firsthand—he witnessed a near-death experience himself.

"All we're asking here, Ryan, is whether, willingly, but not forcefully, you would—"

"I will," he interrupted the doctor. His abrupt answer brought all eyes on him. Ryan could care less. "Yes, I agree on your terms. I agree with the possibilities of discovering a new world and death ahead of me. I agree with being the first human to ever set foot on mankind's milk and honey salvation. And I agree...well, you know what I mean."

As if he made a marvelous breakthrough, the satisfied smiles from some desperate people (of course Ryan knew they were trying to hide their last-gasp expressions with professional appearances) in the room, including Director of National Intelligence and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The two officials he least expect to get any sort of smiles from, which made it a little weird for the former CIA agent, as he knew personally that these guys didn't smile to no one in their workforce. Ryan wasn't sure if they even grin or smirked.

But when they left, leaving him, his sister, Helienson and the Chief of Staff together in the small conference room in concentric ring C, the second floor, it suddenly became silent. They had other plans, Ryan understood. The continuing tensions and maintaining peace through US-Euro Satellite Shield orbiting around Earth. Of course, working with European Federation Intelligence and Situation Center wasn't exactly the best cooperation if each side treated each other like neutrals instead of allies. Ryan had his past experiences with Euro agents who spoke nearly fourteen different languages simultaneously.

Doctor Helienson turns to the former agent with a warm yet casual smile.

"Ryan, the possibilities and ETA of rescue and retrieval is truly uncertain. It could be days, weeks, months, or years before an extraction team would be sent through the Terminus. And, if you're not too busy—" that sounded more like 'if you're not in any dangerous situation' to him. "—then I had technicians make this in case of monophobia."

She scooted a bracelet—no, a Cicret Bracelet—toward the former agent with gentle hands with hard-working dedication. It was likely the new generation of Cicret Bracelets, too, finding its wristband with more sleek and protective exterior designs. Out of curiosity, he watched closely as Helienson gently pressed a pencil lead-sized button, the only one on the bracelet. In revelation, a color holographic form of a woman in a modern, sleeveless red dress, black high heels, and long, curvy dark hair appeared. No static, no distortion in digital form, no discoloration. The hologram was stunningly flawless in physical design.

"A human artificial intelligence hologram with several programmed sentiments into silicon data chips and quantum-based mechanics, Pandora," Helienson said.

"Hello, Pandora," Ryan greeted, whether oral communication was in its database.

"Hallo, Rya Park, I am Pandora, your person side by side AI into the parallel world."

Ryan felt a bit uncomfortable by the statical tone and speech of the AI, and the Ph.D. felt the same, while Pandora kept smiling at the two of them without a change in expression.

"We're still working on speech and sentiment tweaks. It's only in its earliest stage."


	5. Chapter Three - Into the Terminus

[](https://ibb.co/XbYLzns)

RYAN STRAPPED INTO his complete white skin-tight garment made of elastomeric fabric for temperature stability and neutral buoyancy from the interior and Kevlar fiber for low thermal conductivity, abrasion, and ultra-violet resistance, suspension to the paramagnetic salt enclosure, and enhanced body protection on the exterior. The basic idea: soft, warm, comfortable on the inside and hard, resistant, everlasting on the outside.

The dress room's hooks had his regular suit hanging like livestock in a slaughterhouse. His personal items, including his smartphone, fossil watch, and wallet were taken earlier by high-security PFPA officers with red-patched holographic access cards. However, taking advantage of the situation, Ryan turned off blocked contacts from a girl he used to date that obsessively kept calling him every hour of the day, even after they broke up. She'll be their problem, now. The former agent had to smirk at that, imagining the girl he forgot constantly being a nuisance to the PFPA officers.

 _Teach you to be careless idlers on the job_ , Ryan thought both bitterly and smugly.

Once he dressed in his garment, finishing with the white armor on his chest and shoulders, and then the visor helmet, sitting on the metallic folding chair without use. He didn't want to put it on now, whether the suit's phone-sized carbon recycling filter was ready to use or not. Ryan only held the helmet under his arm, holding it like a brand-new inflated basketball in front of an NBL audience.

Walking down the narrow corridors in a skin-tight garment brought back painful memories of his most strenuously training those few months ago. Waiting in a room underground, having his name called when ready to commence training, and working hard without a show of impenetrable breakthroughs. He'd only show unyielding success and flexibility in crucial episodes without assistance. The first half of training was a mere breeze for the former agent, knowing how to conquer fear and follow sense; but mid-training became much more difficult than he had ever anticipated, and finals were indescribably, much to say, beyond human physical and mental expertise even for veterans.

However—turn the tables—and that'll become your breakthrough, he finally learned after months of brutal preparations in front of the most eminent and prestigious political, scientific, and martial officials. In desperate situations, when you're faced with difficult and disadvantaged scenarios...think conscientiously; be vital; have faith; do what's right.

_Think conscientiously; be vital; have faith; do what's right. Because without these—humanity has no reason to exist. Without legacy in humanity—then our remains on Earth were merely nothing but our atavistic undoing and endures._

****************************************

Ryan was escorted through the test facility, the former agent in-between two PFPA officers. One was old and the other seemed to have recently turned thirty. He hardly glanced at the officers, finding his position slightly creepy for his comfort. But as soon as they approached a rising platform, inside a metallic two and a half story facility radiated by heavy-duty fluorescent lights on the ceiling, walls, and LED floor lights gleaming on the edge of walls and everything else. He saw, before led onto a platform, Control Station on the opposite side, rising to the ceiling. He knew his sister, Doctor Helienson, and Chief of Staff was in there with technicians, operators, engineers, and scientists of various fields. They could see him. He just couldn't see them.

Hurrying to the bay, but not in a rush, after the officers finally left him alone, returning to the entrance/exit door of the ground floor facility, Ryan climbed aboard an RPV (Reconnaissance and Protection Vehicle) pod. They were old yet beauteous in their own way: shaped like the old Gemini modules, except with a little more room in the cockpit, and alternating the ion-propelled engine to a smaller size with equal amounts of potential energy before launch and kinetic energy after launch as a standard EVA scout. This beast had non-corrosive carbon-titanium (mined, refined, and produced on Mars' colonies) fuselage, lined with heavy protective shielding, life support for up to twenty-four hours, and state-of-the-art navigation, communication and quantum-computed system.

Ryan switched the hands-free headset to low frequency, specifically twenty Hertz.

"Testing, testing. Can I get any feedback? Over."

 _"Roger, R-P,"_ It was Doctor Helienson over the headset, _"we have confirmed a fracture in space-time and are commencing vortex opening. You may initiate pre-launch sequence. Over."_

Ryan closed and sealed the hatch, using magnets for an air-tight sealant. He strapped in hurriedly, before watching a circular mechanic in front, the Terminus, while its hollow hole began appearing as a cloud-like blue of swirls around the center of the Terminus. An electric-blue with numerous cyclone-like vortexes, seemed attached to the rims of Terminus' inner structure. Quickly, he punched pre-launch sequence systems. Fuel cells and auxiliary power online. Life support and emergency systems backup at one hundred percent and running without complication. Green for all systems.

The cockpit, still a little cramped like the Gemini modules had a touch-screen console and holographic displays of multiple instruments, digital data, and feeds, illuminate by blue and white LED glowing rims around components of the console. Control sticks on the edges of the pilot's armrests. Blinking lights, white, red, and green, for the sub-systems indicated successful startups and overrides.

Before he would launch, the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) catapult system, connected to the RPV's landing gear—

 _"Don't forget,"_ Helienson interrupted without advanced notice, _"Pandora can be synced to the RPV's quantum-computed system. She is programmed for pre-launch sequence and V/STOL systems, unless repealed by manual override protocol, a.k.a 'you.' But before I go, beware; because once you enter that wormhole, communications will be very static due to electromagnetic interference, until you make through and into the other world. Also, you're equipped with emergency gear and other things you need to survive until you establish domain and dominance in a possible hostile world."_

"I give a fifty-fifty chance whether this world will even be hostile." He looks from the back of his seat, finding the emergency gear and kits at the back, strapped and properly secured. Hung from on a metallic wall, a semi-automatic rifle with a red dot sight, and infrared laser sight combo. "Why do I need a semi-auto rifle, anyway?"

_"Because when we sent the probe to the other world, we discovered healthy stimulus organisms, which could likely be terrestrial animals or anything really. And if so, they don't fear humans like our terrestrial animals do, since these exotic organisms never went through millions of years of evolution with the fear and idea that humans are apex predators akin to ours. Like I said earlier, 'establish domain and dominance' once you arrive."_

Ryan licked his lips and nodded slowly without an audience.

"Gotcha." He leveled his Cicret Bracelet close to the console, saying, "Pandora, sync, and command pre-launch sequence and V/STOL systems."

"Yes, Ryan. Right away!"

When the console and LED lights turned blue and white, the former agent knew Pandora had synced herself into the quantum-computed system. As Helienson said, they did make tweaks to Pandora's speech and sentiment program. Now she spoke more normally and used error-free word choice and pronunciation. Now, he liked the human AI a lot better than before. Just imagining being alone with a human AI didn't seem all that weird then before. But Pandora's primary role on this mission was to keep Ryan safe at all times and obey all his commands, even with a human sentimental program with the ability to comprehend rights and morals. Of course, not every human feeling was programmed into the human AI, in case of hesitation and minor disobedience which could lead to Ryan's downfall. Keeping the former CIA agent safe and following commands is her primary objective. Asking questions and sentimental opinions are merely sub-systems.

"Pre-launch systems are green, Ryan! EMALS catapult system is green and ready to launch! Final preparations are at your command, Ryan! Ready or not?" Pandora's tone was casual, but the former agent could imagine the human AI sounding more firm and enthusiastic like she tried to be, he guessed.

 _"Ryan,"_ it was his sister over the frequency now, _"before you go, I want to say that I'm so, so proud to be your little sister and that I love you no matter what. I hope you come back safely."_

"I love you, too, sis. But don't worry..." He cleared his throat and held the wire-type microphone close to his mouth. _"...I'll be back."_ He mimicked his best Arnold Schwarzenegger and his acting role in the Terminator franchise impression. Next thing he knew, he heard the soft, static chuckles of his sister over the headset, making him smile with warmth before putting his helmet on and locking the latches tightly in place.

He thought to myself, _All right...here goes nothing. What's that slang people said back in the day about living one life? Oh, yes, Yolo!_

He took another deep breath.

"Pandora, ready for launch," he said. And with that, the ion boosters fired, expelling a tell of electric-blue and white plasma, accelerating the RPV's speed to beyond records of EVA aircraft. However, the EMALS's linear motor kept the RPV in place, like waiting jets on aircraft carriers with pilots just waiting to catapult their aircraft. The plotted trajectory in the guidance system, data previously gathered from the probe, calculated the pods' path through the wormhole and to the exact coordinates of this new world beyond the Terminus.

Ryan little voice in his head, with many reasons, tried persuading him to reconsider with adrenaline rushing and his heart pounding. He knew this could go both ways: successfully journeying into an electromagnetic vortex and make it to the other world unharmed, or flying directly on a suicide mission, as his name would only be forgotten to those with no deep, personal connections with Ryan...not to mention ten million dollars down the drain for a lost pod with an idiotic pilot inside. But, of course, nobody close to him would miss the former agent any. And he knew as well that high-ranking officials could give less for one lost--any human can replace another human--Ryan heard them say many times whenever he eavesdropped on the other side of locked doors.

While firmly gripping the control sticks on the armrest, he found his heart beating quicker and harder the more he realized that this moment he'd trained for is finally coming to life. Nervousness seemed to grasp himself more than vehement enthusiasm.

"Ryan, your bracelet's heartbeat sensor detects an increased heartbeat of one hundred and twelve pulses per minute. Are you feeling satisfacory?" Pandora asked.

"It's something called nervousness, Pandora. Nothin' to worry about." He took a deep breath after his reply, grasping the controls on the armrest, knowing now he couldn't turn back. Here goes nothing... "Control Station, request access."

_"Access granted, R-P. You are clear for take off. Godspeed."_

With that cue, Ryan thruster the controls, shouting, "Now, Pandora!" Soon, with a booming electrical bolt, reaching fierce speeds and amounting kinetic energy, the pod shot from the EMALS and into the Terminus. The pod shot so fast a person hardly had time to blink before the aircraft disappeared into the electromagnetic vortex. The pod the left earth without a trace, except for the used EMALS.

****************************************

Julian rose from her rolling chair as soon as the pod disappeared into the gigantic Terminus. She felt her own heart stop a beat when the booming sound of the pod's high-velocity jet noise shook the facility with light rumbles, almost the feeling onboard a moving maglev. Doctor Helienson, previously making a quick converse with a chief operator, gazed at the young, tensed female. The old doctor offered her a reassuring smile across her tad wrinkled face. She looked at the Chief of Staff, who held nothing less than an astonished expression. Shortly, a smile of satisfaction grew, and kept growing wider. Julian perceived this as less than compassionate. She could see through the eyes of politicians without sincere regard to public sentiment and opinion.

She frowned. Douches like this man, a member of the politically reformed Democratic Party, who espoused a tougher outlook on the public and other rivalry parties, and never fully comprehending the sentimentiality people felt when loved ones disappeared—whether alive or dead. However, her professional demeanor constrained Julian from expressing any looks of incense. God, she hated establishment politicians!

"This is a huge success, people!" the Chief of Staff shouted. He threw his arms in the air in triumph. "We're changing the course of humanity forever."

"Well, sir, if I may intrude, until we have confirmation our pilot has safely arrived in the new world, we cannot affirm any success for humanity's future," Helienson said. That statement gave Julian chills along her arms, still stewing for her brother's safety.

"Well, then...go ahead and talk to him if you're so worried about that pilot. Don't stop me from raining on your parade." He checks his digital, platinum watch. "Besides, I have other manners to attend to. Speak with me when he arrives in Wonderland."

Julian hid the urge to clench a fist and throw a perfect blow into the man's cheek. Now he was just being disrespectful. Watching the most glorious moment in human history since the first moon and Mars landing, and now he seems to spit on the very man risking his life for mankind. Of course, I didn't surprise her. Again, an establishment politician never fully comprehend the feelings people expressed when loved ones disappear.

 _Worthless piece of shit!_ she thought.

But as soon as the Chief of Staff grasped the vertical door handle, twisting horizontally, and opening it, he was met with an instant surging pain through his forehead before he fell to the ground, dazed. Clamping manifold footsteps and the shouting from a firm, raspy, ear-piercing men.

"Don't move! Get down to the ground, now!"

Julian and Helienson were met with soldiers in full uniform and heavy gear, leveling laser-sighted assault rifles at everyone in the room. The staff, except Julian and Helienson, complied with the soldiers, gradually kneeling on the floor until they lay completely prone on their stomachs. One soldier, most likely a warrant officer in command, gestured his hands at the Chief of Staff and the others, making twists, swirls, extending and bending his fingers covered by his tactical carbon fiber glove. His men nodded, complying with gestural orders and lowering their weapons.

It didn't take a genius to finger out who they were. Universal Camouflage Pattern uniforms, Ultra-enhanced Combat Helmets, Advanced Tactical Vests, tactical forward grip M7A2 assault rifles with certain design to the laser sights, and they spoke perfectly good English. They never fired on sight, she noted. Of course—they wouldn't kill their own fellow patriots. Yes, she thought, they are Americans.

"W-what's the meaning of this?" the Chief of Staff shouted with acid in his tone, pressing, but not efficiently, on the bruised point of his forehead. "Answer me, soldier, or so help you'll be facing court-mart—!"

"I don't think so, Mr. Chief of Staff." The voice muffled from the edge of the corridor, inching closer and closer, until a man of Indian origin, perhaps in his mid-thirties, appears from the hollow door. His expression held no emotion, but the look of disgust and pitiless gazes directly at the Chief of Staff, lying against a wall stunned and enraged. "You have no authority over these men and women."

"You! You worthless, cow-loving son of a—!"

One of the soldiers kicked the Chief of Staff in his abdomen. The Indian in an immaculate satin suit merely grinned at the old man's pain, before directing his full attention at Julian and Helienson, the only ones still standing in the Control Station. He prevented himself from grinning once again, but the temptation was too great for him to let go, as he had the upper hand, of course. Two women, young and old, one presumably smart and the other an Einstein of brilliance; one beautiful and the other cranky; both of them fearless, confused and tensed. He loved that kind of sight. Two daring, brave women in a room full of submissive cowards.

"I'm sorry to startle you," he said, walking closer. "I really am. It's just that the element of surprise is always the most...efficient method of cornering your enemy, even with half the government behind your back."

"What do you want?" Helienson asked bitterly. "What's going on?"

"I'm sorry to say this, too, but you're under arrest for illegal space-time experimentation, under the _Science Assistance In War Prohibition Act_ of 2089, not to mention the oldest administrative charges of all: treason and fraud."

"Illegal? We were given government permission and financial funding for this project. And how are treason and fraud connected to all this?" Julian turned to Helienson, who was just as baffled and blank as she was.

"Well, unless the House Committee on Financial Services made some gross calculation errors on budgets, because from what I know the government never funded this project."

 _What? How? If the government wasn't funding us this whole time, then who—?_ Julian snapped herself from her thoughts, before looking directly at the Chief of Staff—the only one personally running and overseeing the project.

The Indian continued, "And to answer your previous question, the NSA intercepted an old Secure Terminal Equipment phone call to the People's Pan-Asian Alliance concerning an exchange and co-venturing the Terminus project over to Beijing. And that specific secured line came directly from the Pentagon a few times. If you cannot comprehend all that, let me put it simply. Giving away classified government projects, which this wasn't a project at all, for possible weaponry design, that's treason. Carrying it for personal financial gain, that's fraud. See the connection?"

"What're going to do, then?" she asks.

"Because this facility is now evidence for an FBI and Congressional investigation, we're temporarily shutting down this project until the investigation is finished." He turns and nods at the officer, nodding back.

"Wait! You can't do that! My—" she quickly stopped herself from saying 'my brother,' fearing, not for her life, but her remaining family. "The subject is still in the course of traveling through space-time! If you shut down that vortex, then you disconnect communications with us and the subject!"

She could hear her voice becoming hoarse from constant yelling. Helienson tried grabbing for her arms but failed as the younger woman yanked from her grip. Julian knew the consequences, even if they were all fooled by the Chief of Staff, of treason and fraud. But her older brother was still in the vortex, whether still journeying or already in the new world. His life signals were still on and normal, so he isn't dead yet, she thanked the Lord. But she was in-between a battle of emotions and her professional duty. It hurt both mentally and physically.

"The subject is already gone?" The man looked from the glass ceiling-to-floor panel frame as an electric-blue vortex is still operational. He cursed under his breath. They were too late. And now the subject, a primary suspect for the investigation, was gone for good, deep in the unknown. "Still, this facility will be shut down for inspection. If this subject did make it to another world, or dimension, then he or she will have to wait a bit longer until trial—"

"That'll literally take months!" exclaimed Julian. "He knows he'll have to stay for a couple of weeks until the extraction team arrives! What the hell is he going to do for several months?"

"Hmmm, so it is a man in that vortex..." Julian cursed her own frantic blurt. She had to learn to control her feelings before calling out people. She just now disclosed Ryan's gender, and the man was only here for, perhaps, a couple of minutes at most. "Besides, why are you so emotionally riled up for a single human test subject? We have hundreds of thousands of expandable unemployed here in D.C. that would take this job at the snap of a finger."

"Because," Dr. Helienson said, "mankind's future rests in his hands."

"Oh, I see..." There was no remorse in his voice. "The whole 'mankind's savior' chimera, huh?"

The man nodded at the officer, who leveled his carbine and, without hesitation, fires upon the glass touch-screen consoles of the Control Station. The room was strobe-lighted by sparks and flickers from the high-tension console, LED lights dimming and glass shards crashing onto the floor. The console's enduring electrical buzzes and other short circuit noises nearly drowned the screaming of female operators after the burst of gunshots. But outside, while Julian and Helienson watched in aghast, as the vortex slowly and then instantly vanishes. Electromagnetic readings were down; communications were offline; the life signals from Ryan's Cicret Bracelet were not displaying any signs of life.

Rage building up in Julian's veins, she was close to jolting at the man in the satin suit.

"Do you realize what you just did?" she wailed with a fierce acid tone that could pierce through a man's unyielding form.

"Yes, I do," he replied unceremoniously, no change in his expression. "Furthermore, until I receive an official conclusion to this investigation, you will be placed under FBI custody until we bring this whole shit-show to court. For now, he'll just have to live in the wilderness until _our_ extraction team conducts a rescue plan in the future. Wait a minute—Ryan...yes, his name is Ryan. Your brother, Ms. Anderson."


	6. Chapter Four - A New World

[](https://ibb.co/XbYLzns)

RYAN PILOTED THE RPV through the vortex's passage. In curiosity, he glanced out from his tiny windshield for visual orientation; but all he saw is infinite darkness with eerie light gleaming every fraction of the passage, besides the ghost-like white plasma bursts, coming in waves. No stars, no color, no life, no physical matter that was natural in his world. This truly was space-time, he thought. It was almost if he'd left the boundaries of the entire universe outside this pod, beyond the unknown of space-time. If Ryan had a camera, which he anticipated no luck since it proved absolutely no significant value on his mission, then he would've definitely shot some digital shots of outside, and maybe some selfies of himself with space-time in the background.

He felt the vortex's g-force pressing him like a man diving deeper in a submarine. The force pressed against him from all sides, not missing a single inch; but the pod's enhanced non-corrosive shielding protected him from physical harm. Damage is zero percent on the pod, so journeying the rest of the way would be a piece of cake for Ryan. However, his console was rippling from electromagnetic interference, and anything else electronically sensitive to serve gravitational turbulence and high radiation impulses. But the situation was completely under control. Everything is still green.

Then, suddenly, he thought about Pandora.

"Pandora, do you read?"

"Yes, Ryan, I do...only a little bit, though. Electromagnetic interference is distorting my digital processes."

"Hang on, Pandora, we'll be outta here in no time," he said. Hopefully, though, he could keep promises while they're still in the tunnel-like passage.

But just as he said that, the navigation and guidance systems, through moderate static, showed a blinking dot and a trajectory path to that dot on his curved console. He knew from that moment the fracture on the other side of space-time was nearby, approximately...well, he didn't have time to calculate the distance. The RPV was closing fast on the target.

However, he had little self-control over himself as the vortex's g-force continued to press against him. This time—it was critical. He clenched his seat, feeling the g-force build all around him, even threatening to implode at any moment. Then he remembered a friend in high school who became a navy Officer of the Deck, or OOD, of a _Carolina_ -class nuclear-powered attack submarine. However, he heard the actual submarine suffered critical to non-reversible damage in the ballast tanks by a Pan-Asian type 056A frigate two hundred and fifty kilometers off from Mogadishu in the Third Somalian Civil War, which, as diving experts examined, seawater flooded the ballast and the submarine plunged deep until it implodes before hitting the seafloor. All hands were reported lost.

Now Ryan wondered whether the anguishing experience he currently felt was the same for his friend and the crew on the _Carolina_ -class submarine. The feeling was dreadful to bear, stuck inside a confined box with no means of getting out, at least, not alive. Ryan was going to face the ultimate penalty for his bold decision-making: the five percent chance of dying on this mission as an idiotic pilot. He knew by chance this moment might come. He anticipated. What reason did he have to complain about?

 _I hope this is payback, Jacob...for that feud between you, I and our lunch group that March,_ he thought of his deceased OOD friend, _because if I die—_

Without warning, the RPV was spat out by the other end of the vortex, hurling, still in one piece. He cleared the vortex's terminus, as the pod flung from the now closing wormhole, continuing to hurl. In an instant, the g-force quickly wore off and Ryan hastily grasped the controls, adrenaline rushing, initiating the emergency reboot systems, as the electromagnetic field turned everything off like a simple light switch. If he didn't get the guidance system back online for re-entry sequence, then he would simply skip in mid... _air_?

Out from the windshield, Ryan saw a blue sky and milky white clouds across from the falling pod. He was somewhere else. But the former agent was too reoccupied to wonder. While the console and other electronic devices and modules flashed once again, and systems turned green, he rested the guidance system. With limited life support and emergency power, Ryan knew he had no other choice but to land, which proved extremely risky since he had no knowledge of the terrain below him. For all he knew, escaping the vortex could've been a fluke and the real death is down below. Still, he needed to try...

"Pandora, are you there?" he called.

For a second, there was no reply. It terrified him. But soon, Ryan heard the digital, gentle voice of his human AI. "Yes, I'm still here."

"Reboot navigation and direct power to the guidance system! Then, on my word, initiate V/STOL systems and prepare for landing!" Ryan said, working frantically on the pod's console.

"Yes, right away!"

Automatically, retro-boosters burst plasma, deaccelerating to a considerable speed before switching on horizontal stabilizers. They were still descending through the thick, milky clouds around the RPV. He wondered—what would be down there, waiting for him to step, lay, or settle on? Was this the world he was supposed to find? If so, then it wouldn't be difficult to land since this world was supposed to be earth-like. More questions popped in his mind. And along with it, ideas and solutions to his problems. What if—?

 _"Unidentified aircraft, do you read, over?"_ a voice over the pod's comms said abruptly. Ryan barely caught what the voice said, only assuming the voice as a mid-aged male by the raspy tone, as he swiftly switched to a frequency-hopping channel.

"This is Delta R-P, calling Alpha Home Earth," he used the code whenever both he and Control Station back on terrestrial earth were separated by different universes, "I've crossed the vortex and entering the new world! My location is indescribable! My RPV has lost all main power and is running off of emergency alternatives! I need technical guidance! Over."

 _"Wait! What?"_ The voice sounded both shocked and baffled.

"Do you not understand?" He almost yells over the console, nearly slurring in his own words. "I'm literally falling out of the sky, here! Do I get some assistance, or what?"

_"Look, I don't know who you are—"_

"Then screw you!"

Ryan immediately turned off all communication arrays with one switch. He could hardly care who that was. His own life was a top priority than spending minutes while descending from clouds to a brainless douche. Soon, he saw the cloud cover finally thin out and the ground came to view from ten thousand feet below him. He couldn't help but laugh in triumph as the former agent knew his mission was a one hundred percent successful one, looking at the beauteous sight of a new world for humanity. Confidence soon outweighs his fears and despair.

Ryan's first impression of the new world was the flourished green terrain with spaced-out trees scattered all over, most likely pastureland. Then he remembered a book, _The Arts of Agriculture: Livestock and Ranching_ , he read for environmental science in high school, and one particular chapter told about grazing cattle and sheep in these types of terrains with minimum annual temperature and rainfall. Bio-domes, especially ones with high-tech weather modification modules, can create pasture environments separated from others for what grazing animals remained on earth, which wasn't particularly a critical threat.

Staring down at the terrain, as his problems seemed to have gusted away, Ryan saw a snake-like shaped river, snaking its way across the land. River...water! Yes, it is! The second most crucial resource to sustain life, aside from air. It also appeared to be fresh, as its blue water glared with speckles. Freshwater was the rarest, natural resource back on earth. Either areas with freshwater were contaminated by pollution or dried up as the overwhelming population sucked nearly every major river and lake on earth up like a straw in soda—gone within a long, forceful slurp until the drinker was satisfied.

Ryan felt his mouth wetting a bit.

However, in the distance, he could make where the snake-like river was flowing to. The former agent saw the shoreline of a large lake, possibly as big—maybe even larger—as the Great Salt Lake, situated several kilometers in front of him. 

_This could supply an entire global city for many generations!_ he thought. Indeed, it would sustain life. 

From the beginning he'd anticipated a barren world where humans could terraform it into a keen earth, which they could've done on Mars and other planets in the Solar System—only this world was already thriving with ecosystems. This place, without doubt, can sustain life. It has air (hopefully breathable), flourished land, planets, and water, just waiting for mankind!

But his self-joyous mood is soon interrupted by a booming caution alarm, and then Pandora spoke.

"Emergency power is at a critical five percent!"

Of course, like every other piece of machinery made in a world with scanty resources, it had its limits. The batteries, supplying emergency power, were flat and draining fast. He read a guide book on the design of the RPV during his training, and even went through simulations on flying, working the controls, and restarting temporarily unworkable components. But with the ion-powered fuel cells kaput, he only had the batteries as alternative powers to the combustion engine, thrusting the pod, which weren't supposed to last. In a state of do-or-die, Ryan needed to find a perfect landing spot...and fast!

"Pandora, prepare for V/STOL procedures. We're landing this tin-can!" he said.

"Yes. Right away!"

He urged his pod on, turning with his gloves moving across a blank fraction of the console (the manual touch-screen flight guidance fly-by-wire control systems). Wherever his fingers moved, up, down, left or right, the pod swirled in their direction, too. Ryan was closing on the lake, taking co-V/STOL commands now, as he tried to minimize increasing speed, slowly descending the pod closer to the ground below, until he was a few meters from the pod's bottom and the ground.

Finally, while his adrenaline had skyrocketed, the RPV tore across the water, skidding with every forceful bump, stirring small waves across his path. Shortly, Ryan deployed the drogue chute behind the pod. Soon, the RPV came to a gradual, lurching stop. Now, as the former agent's nerves settled, the pod bogged in the water a few hundred meters from the shoreline. When he checked for damage, nearly all readings went static.

He laid back in his seat, grateful to be alive more then he'd ever been. But before the assuming that the worse might be over, Ryan quickly realized the water outside the windshield was rising—loud gurgling water told him without a doubt that his pod was sinking. He didn't know whether this pod was designed for water flotation or any sort of water system. Ryan never read anything about that in the book. However, recapping what the book said isn't going to get him out of this situation. But when he switched to manual ejection and launch the lifeboat, it didn't respond. Of course, the thought, everything was dead now.

In a panic, but still in control of himself, Ryan hurriedly went to the back of the RPV. Without thinking, he pressed the hatch's emergency release button. Airtight seals popped and the hatch flung open. Soon, water started swamping the interior of the pod. Hastily, he grabbed a satchel made of a vacuum and waterproof nylon fabric bearing the American flag. The same old thirteen equal, horizontal red and white stripes, but, except without the fifty stars in the blue canton; instead, it had twenty stars in a circle, representing the domed cities in America, and a large star in the center, Washington, D.C. on it.

It was zipped tight.

Ryan saw the semi-automatic rifle in front, but it wasn't fit for water. He had no choice but to leave it behind with the sinking pod—into a watery grave. However, he did grasp his new generation Beretta U22 Neos handgun placed beside the satchel and several stainless steel clips. He unzipped the satchel and placed the handgun inside and tried grasping for all seven clips, holding ten rounds inside, but five slipped from his saturated hands and into the water that leveled with his knees.

"Crap!" he shouts.

The interior of the pod was dimming quickly, and searching for the five clips seemed absolutely impossible. He had little time to kneel and search blindly for simply five clips! It wasn't worth the risk. Instead, he placed the only two magazine clips in the satchel and zipped, before slinging the satchel over his shoulder, as his other shoulder suddenly felt pain.

"Pandora!" he called. "Sync to the bracelet! We're leaving now!"

"Yes. Of course, Ryan!" she answers immediately.

Suddenly, the surface disappeared, and light dimmed within the pod. Through his visor, supplying him with air, all he could see was his world turned to a shady bluish-green from the lake's water. He swore he felt his heart skip a few beats underwater. But that wasn't his crucial concern. It was getting out of the pod before you sink with it! Everything in his satchel was still dry, hopefully. And his Cicret Bracelet was completely waterproof, explained by Helienson before his departure.

Within a few frantic seconds, Ryan swam through the open hatch, drastically taking off his chest and shoulder armor for more buoyancy. Soon, he broke the surface of the water, checking whether the satchel was still around his shoulder. It was. The former agent checked his surroundings and found the shoreline, before raising arms and legs on the surface and swam. In minutes, Ryan was crawling up the sandy lakeshore, winded.

On land, he fell flatly on his back, catching his breath as he stared at the glaring sun and soon at the lake, where his pod had sunk. The only thing that remained visible of the RPV is the drogue chute, bobbing on the surface with the cord still attached to the rear of the pod. Eventually, it would sink, too. But, for now, it marked the crash site.

His first concern was breathable air. There was no doubt this world had an atmosphere with significant pressure and oxygen, but possible hazards like unfamiliar alien microbes in the air, or contaminating the world with his bacteria, Ryan knew it would be vacuous to take off his visor helmet and breathe it on the spot. However, he didn't know how long his suit's carbon recycling filter would last after being forcefully used underwater; so what choice did the former agent have?

He sat straight on the grass and called Pandora over his hands-free headset, "Pandora, are you there?"

"Yes, I am. Are you okay, Ryan? I'm reading rapid heart pulses. You're in shock; you need rest until your heart—"

"I'm fine, Pandora. Honestly, I'm fine. All I need is an environmental analysis," he said; although it would be nice to take a little rest on the grass.

"Yes. Of course."

In seconds, a holographic screen displays on his arm of the results. Surprisingly enough, the readings came back positive. No detention of any toxic gasses. Not a single trace.

**Environment:**

**Atmospheric Composition: Nitrogen 76%, Oxygen 22%, Water Vapor 1%, Argon 0.94%, Carbon Dioxide 0.032%**

**Pressure: 14.5 pounds per square inch**

**Temperature: 77.5 degrees Fahrenheit (22.3 degrees Celsius)**

**Solar Radiation: 5.91 kWh/m^2**

**Gravity: 9.8G**

Aside from some tad changes, with slightly more amounts of oxygen and argon and slightly less nitrogen and carbon dioxide in the air, but otherwise, the environment was completely earth-like. It was just as Doctor Helienson had said, earth-like! And so could the air be significantly suitable for breathing? The former agent couldn't be completely dependent on the carbon recycling filter forever. He had to try sometime; it was either now or never.

_Technology, don't let me down now..._

He grasped the latches of the helmet, loosened them, before finally taking his first deep breath in this new world. He felt his ears pop a bit, maybe because of the atmospheric pressure. His lungs, years of living in pressurized domes and recycled air, weren't used to a new, fresh air environment. He coughed and spluttered, as his head was spinning and minor nausea came afterward. But soon enough, his body adjusted and he was able to breathe without complications. And his first smell was the lakeshore and grass, but everything else seemed odorless. Again, living in pressurized domes and recycled air, mixing with strong odors of people, machines, infrastructure, and emissions, this world to him seemed practically odorless.

While he washed off the algae and sand from his white skin-tight garment, virtually a green, silted mess, until it was white once again, which took time by the snake-like river. He feared, because his garment was all white, that he would need to clean it often to keep it fresh and new. Great...day-by-day maintenance! Setting his satchel on a dry rock, he unzipped the bag and inspected the contents inside. There was other gear, however, they were at the bottom of the lake now. All Ryan had is this satchel.

Ryan searched through the satchel. He categorized his contents. For health, he had a kit contained with medical items from minor to severe cases: dressings, gauzes, medical adhesive tape, a bottle of antiseptic, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, codeine, morphine, paracetamol, penicillin, injected by a syringe-gun, retractable scalpel, scissors, tweezers, and a hygiene kit. Everything he could treat wounds with was in here. However, he needed to be wit and resourceful, since he's only going to be here for a few weeks. And not every exotic world had a pharmacy hidden behind a giant rock.

Next, for communications...the only thing electronic was his hands-free headset and an Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) beacon, only used in case of emergencies where SOS signals could be sent ten to the range of a hundred-thousand kilometer. It was a handheld device with a retractable antenna, and it could be attached to the garment. But besides his fancy electronics, the satchel also had an old-fashioned flare gun with five cartridges, and a few glow sticks.

For equipment, Ryan had a LED flashlight with five thousand lumens and one hundred watts, bright enough to blind a bear the second you shine it in its eyes, a multi-tool with fifteen retractable blades, a roll of duct-tape, a camouflage function poncho, a full-sized blanket, optical head-mounted display glasses, an aluminum canister, and finally, a laser pen. With regard to food and water, there was very little. All he had was a Fontus self-filling water bottle, a handheld water purifier, with the canister to store it all, and a few MRE bags to fuel his metabolism for three days at most.

And finally, the weapons stash, the most important tool when encountering a new and exotic world where you know nothing and something tries to kill you. His primary weapon was his Beretta U22 handgun with one loaded chamber and two additional magazine clips, each containing ten 22. rounds. In total, he had thirty rounds to spare. His second weapon was a subsonic/electromagnetic-pulse pistol, with the capability to fire sonic energy and throw a person unconscious, categorizing it as a practical non-lethal weapon; however, with the turn of a switch, the pistol can alternate to an electromagnetic-firing mode where it shoots electromagnetic pulses, frying anything electronic or with a computer-based system. Ryan could also equip a tactical laser and flashlight on his Beretta and an extra fusion power container for the subsonic/electromagnetic-pulse pistol.

Searching through the inner pockets, he found a pocket folding knife, a zippo lighter, a HUD watch, and other commodities he couldn't list. Satisfied with his stuff, he mounted the beacon on his satchel, clipping it to a strap. He placed everything back in, not having any use for each commodity at the moment. However, before he zipped up the satchel, a theatrical idea pops in his head, remembering the mini American flag in one of the pockets while staring at a hill, so far the highest point in the area. Quickly, he ran up the hill, ready to make a speech no American would ever have to say in the nation's history.

"I hereby claim this world for the sovereignty of the United States of America, for the People, for our great country, and the asshats on Capitol Hill. God bless the People and God bless America." He planted the flag in the dirt. He stood straight and firm and salutes. The former agent smirked at his lack of audience, standing in wide silence.

He zipped his satchel and slung it over his shoulder. He popped his other, feeling the need to release some pain, which helped it slightly. Then he looked at the lake again, finding the chute still bobbing in the water.

"Ryan, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm receiving ELF radio waves from an unknown source," Pandora said, her voice sounded confused.

 _What? ELF signals? From here?_ Ryan checked his beacon to make sure he hadn't accidentally switched it on. He didn't. It was still off. _Is it the Control Station? No...it couldn't be. But—_ Then, right there, he instantly remembered before the RPV crashed that a voice was heard over comms. Somebody, or something, was trying to communicate with him. Was it here? No, it couldn't be...can it?

"Pandora, can you trace the radio waves?"

"Yes. Just give me a second." Shortly, literally a second, she spoke again, saying, "It's heading directly North from here. Maybe between one and three hundred miles away. These radio waves are quite peculiar, though...Something not from our world, or at least not in our time period, assuming."

"If that's the case, then we're heading in that direction." If there are other humans here, then did I simply went back in time. This place is too alike to earth, which would explain a lot. And so, Ryan began walking toward North, where his HUD watch with a compass module said North was for— _But, wait, hundreds of miles!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick author's note:
> 
> Messaging or telling others about my story really supports me. Thank you. Remember to comment, so I can get feedback from other users, whether it's praise or criticism (I can accept both), and kudos. Wow! Ryan has a long, mysterious journey ahead of him.


	7. Chapter Five - A World of Animals

[ ](https://ibb.co/6tz8mSr)

_Day Two_

THE FIRST TWO hours of trekking didn't bother Ryan, since he went through months of the most strenuous physical training, but walking for _twelve_ was ungodly. He found shelter in an eroded alcove of rock before the sunset in the east, which also told him the world's planetary tilt was just the same as earth's, whether this is earth or not. He debated with his knowledge and conscious about the idea of whether he was really stuck on earth in a different chronological period before humanity destroyed the planet, or this place was frighteningly exactly identical to earth, like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Which—how could that be, exactly?

He still had those thoughts in his mind, nearly slugging across the pasture. His legs were still throbbing from yesterday's walk, and now they felt like mellow twigs with skin on them. To past the time he used the Cicret Bracelet's music, thanking either Doctor Helienson or his sister for secretly downloading his songs from his phone onto the bracelet, listening to old songs back in the early 2000s to 2100s, sometimes 90s and 80s music too. Currently, he was listening to the lines of _Heaven Is a Place on Earth_.

It still stunned him, though. The world with its flourished environment, fresh, natural air, pure glittering water, and luring scents. He couldn't help but think of all the possibilities humanity can benefit from this. It wasn't going to be the paleolithic humans in leather or fur with sticks and stones as tools and weapons. No. Instead, modern, intellect and civilized humans two-point-five million years ahead of its primitive evolutionary beginning were going to arrive and settle for a second chance. In fact, it came to him, how he was the only human (at least he assumes) in this world, learning to live with his wits and swift learning of this unknown terrestrial land. And in some way, that made him the "Java Man," a term people in his time called the primitive humans during the three-age system, named after the _Homo erectus_ human fossils found in Java, Indonesia of 1891.

He sat down and unpacked his second MRE bag since he'd arrived. Ryan ate his crappy beef ravioli with a side of doughy wheat snack bread, nuts, and humidity condensed water in his Fontus bottle. He hadn't extracted and purified water from the snake-like river, even though he had the time to, but the ELF signal Pandora picked up yesterday was glued to his mind. Eventually, Ryan needed to search for a water source, and soon, before he would suck all the water faster than the bottle could condense and remake. If the former agent hadn't overlooked his utmost imperative resource then debating on a subject that could not be proven as a fact yet, he had some water by now.

Ryan just realized, he broke one of the doctrines... _think conscientiously_.

"What the hell is wrong with you," he said quietly, frustration and guilt kicking around inside him. He paused the music from his bracelet manually. "Why couldn't you just get water before walking in the middle of nowhere. No water source, no civilization, no human in sight!"

Suddenly, the sounds of footsteps crunching on grass was heard. Ryan was caught off-guard by the noises behind him. He jerks his head around, grasping the Beretta from his thigh holster. His non-lethal pistol was strapped tight in his shoulder holster, both firearm holsters were compliments from his satchel. He listened vigilantly, the lethal firearm in his hand, daring for the "thing" to come out and face a fate like any other animal that crosses the wrong person. Ryan was trained to use firearms, before and after volunteering for this mission. He had outstanding precision, is quick to react, and precise with his targets.

But now it seemed the former agent was definitely a Java Man in this world, now. Like the paleolithic humans in the Stone Age, he was faced with an unknown, yet somehow, a familiar predator with only the tools he had to defend himself with. Whether this was earth or not, either way, the world was hostile in many levels in several different scenarios, some he could predict. However, unlike the primitive humanity, surviving in a time of curiosity and terror, he feared nothing that breathed here. It was too quick to assume, but he is and will be the only apex predator in this world.

His heart raced. But when he gazed where the noise came from, nothing was there. He heard the same noises again, however, in a different direction. Ryan came up with two ideas: first, he was surrounded by sly animals in different directions, or, second, this thing was moving to different spots so it would watch the lone human, possibly to feed its curiosity. _Everyone knows curiosity kills the cat,_ he thought, but that phrase held no use or help in his situation.

He hears the sound again, but, this time, it was farther away in the same direction the first time he'd heard it. It's either hunt or be hunted, he thought. And so, he slowly and slyly approached where the noise came from, trying to avoid making any sort of sound. Gradually taking on step at a time, leveling his pistol, controlling his breathing. His little "stealth" walk leads him to a wide hill with a slight slope. He placed his finger on the trigger, only lightly though, avoiding any accidental charges, before his visibility over the hill was clear.

He saw a figure move.

Once over the hill, he got a perfect view of the figure and everything else that his from him. He aimed his pistol. But before pulling the trigger, the former agent saw his supposed "stalker" down below. As tall as his feet to his knees, even though the former agent was considerably six-foot two-inches, gray all over with shades of lightness, and large floppy ears. A rabbit...a lone bunny rabbit. _All this time it was a rabbit_ , he thought. _All of that for a...wait, rabbit! This can't be right!_

He froze in disbelief, staring at the herbivorous animal that could be found on earth...yes, on Earth, with other of its species in temperate and Arctic (hardly left in his world) ecosystems. It absolutely stunned him; the idea of a live animal from his terrestrial world thriving here. How? But the most imperative question was: how did it get here? In another world? Or was this _actually_ Earth?

A voice broke his thinking and bewilderment. A voice? Someone was here, too? Then, he heard the sudden scream of a bystander, a female's voice. However, Ryan could see another rabbit in a pink flower blouse— _blouse!_ —standing on two, what would be hind legs, like a normal human, holding an empty basket in its paws.

The other rabbit, the one he was aiming his pistol at, jerked around at him, shirtless and only wearing rural-style jeans. He, too, became frightened at his appearance and a little more defensive, as he tried waving a pair of clippers, previously used to cut weeds from their crops. In contrast to rabbits in his world, these ones didn't simply run away from a human, but froze in their place with terror and curiosity in their large eyes. Of course, they'd never seen people before, or, at least, that's what he thinks. It was logical, after hearing Doctor Helienson.

In the distance, he saw more rabbits in different physical features emerge from their tractors, carts and other banged up vehicles, watching the incident unfold as bystanders without any obligation to stop the former agent. Then he remembered his gun, still trained directly at the shirtless rabbit's head, appearing more like a sort of execution—maybe murder—than a hunt.

Before he slowly and carefully placed his gun back in its holster, trying to look peaceful at any sort, one or two rabbits took out their smartphones. Ryan panicked and ran, while the rabbits were frantically taking blurry pictures of the human, only getting views from his back until he was out of sight in a split second. Getting away from the emerging terrified crowd was better than explaining himself in front of cameras, which brought up the idea of how technologically advanced these animals were. But those ideas would have to wait until he ran a safe distance.

He snatched his satchel, forgetting the littered MRE bag and wasted food, but retrieving his Fontus bottle, and ran as far as he could run. He nearly tripped over a natural ditch, but he kept running for another minute or two, until he came across a railroad track and rabbit head-shaped billboard. Ryan took a breathe, then looking up at the billboard that read: _YOU ARE NOW LEAVING BUNNYBURROW_. He looked back at the rail tracks, noticing the steel rails and wooden rail ties. Compared to his world's electrodynamic suspension monorails, these conventional rail tracks were old school rail transportation, maybe a hundred years behind maglevs.

Ryan assumed these animals weren't too advanced in terms of technology and intelligence. He could smell the gas and emissions from those old tractors earlier, so this world ran off of fossil fuels. No sorts of glass-made transparent electronics, only solid, possibly, hard plastic and metallic devices. Traditional agricultural farming with no greenhouse and weather-controlled facilities, or special farming techniques with the science involved; in fact, there was hardly any science involved in their farming from the looks of it. Chronologically, this world would've been somewhere between the early and middle 2000s, he believes.

Ryan looked toward the horizon. The utmost bizarre thing that seemed utterly unbelievable in this world—civilization—was there in front of him, laying eyes on what seemed to be a rural farming community of rabbits and possibly hares too. But he swore he saw a fox also, helping them pick blueberries in some way, which made it outré and unorthodox since foxes are considered mortal enemies to rabbits and hares in a predator/prey relationship. Apparently, in this world, that never happens.

He held his bracelet in front of him, saying, "Pandora, you saw that, right?"

"Yes, I have, Ryan. You found that absolutely bizarre, too?"

"I found it more than bizarre." In fact, he found it scientifically riveting in some manner. A world where animals, possibly more species out there, rule and dominate without any human affiliation. By their looks of fear and curiosity, they'd never seen humans before, which was good and bad at the same time. "I guess we found our healthy stimulus organisms Doctor Helienson was talking 'bout. But our mission doesn't change, Pandora, establish domain and dominance. Where is that ELF signal coming from, now?"

"Still north, Ryan," she answers. Ryan checks his HUD watch and it said the north was in the same direction as the rail tracks, away from this place called Bunnyburrow. There was something peculiar about this, and maybe dangerous as well. The former agent didn't know what to expect, and Langley, protected under a government-supervised semi-dome, taught him that most missions will never be as anticipated as pre-mission intel said it would; anything could happen on the way.

Slinging his satchel over his shoulder, Ryan continued trekking, but along an old-fashion railroad, which brought up the question of how and when these "animals" alternated from their primal stage to an evolutionary degree of knowledge and other human-like affiliations, since evolution never starts with civilized species. They had to go through some sort of evolutionary process, starting at a primitive, primal stage and developing archaic social and behavioral traits such as language (after hearing the rabbit in the blouse screamed and the crowd conversing), complex thinking (many things he saw could have related to complex thinking), technology (of course, the vehicles, rail tracks, and other commodities), creativity, etc.

But right now, it was too early to make any assumptions, since he'd only been here for two days and Bunnyburrow was the first bizarre place he encountered. Plus, studying these animals isn't part of the mission...Or was it?

****************************************

In the wake of the evening, while daytime officers were dismissed and nighttime officers arrived for the night shift at Precinct One, the law enforcers who kept order and crime rates low at night, the nocturnal animals. Judy Hopps, one of those daytime officers, was dismissed from a long, hard day at the level of a standard ZPD officer. She and her temporary newbie partner, a wolf from Tundratown, Ace Lykos, were only assigned one case, a robbery at a local antique shop in downtown by a presumed canid in a mask, another minor crime committed. However, to her dissatisfaction, it was a short-lasted assignment when a wolf was reported for suspiciously carrying a bulky gym bag wherever he went. He was arrested, of course, with resistance; and true enough, the bag was filled with old valuable antique relics and wads of cash.

That case seemed too easy, but, still, anything to make Zootopia a better place satisfied Judy. The rabbit wasn't looking for the most intense and dangerous cases, but she also wasn't going to simply take assignments or duties that made no difference in general, remembering her first duty when she arrived at the ZPD station as a meter maid, also known as "parking duty."

Nick already left, saying goodbye to her before the fox disappeared from the front doors of the station. It was a kind gesture, which wasn't something you compeer with his sly, mischievous, smug character. Still, some people can change, like how Judy changed Nick. However, the clever rabbit might've changed his life and what he did for a living, but, sometimes, personality is a more complex framework where you can never change out the picture, the emotions portrayed, from that permanent frame. Every personality had an individual framework for each independent person, where nobody could ever change the picture inside, but you.

As Judy made it across the massive parking lot, she heard the familiar voice, young and masculine, from behind. "Hey, Judy!" She turned around with a warm smile on her face to find Ace in full uniform, waving at her to get the rabbit's attention.

Besides Clawhauser, Ace was a very excitable and hearty wolf, who relished being on duty with Judy all the time, even though they both knew it was temporary. And she, too, relished his company. But sometimes Nick, even if he tried to physically hide it, seemed a bit jealous at times when she and the wolf worked closer on the job then the fox did with her. On the other paw, Nick, knowing him very much, was unbiased with Ace and this temporary arrangement, as she savvied his caring and vulnerable side of him. And that shinned another side of the fox's kindness.

Judy waved back at the wolf, saying, "Heya, Ace, did you want something from me?"

"I didn't mean to follow you, but I'm wondering, why are you still working on the closed investigation in Bunnyburrow?" The rabbit didn't reply immediately, but her groundless stalling brings a slight frown on the wolf's muzzle. "Sorry. It probably wasn't my business anyway."

"No, wait!" The wolf stops in his footsteps, and then turning back to the rabbit, still feeling embarrassed for asking such a question that would reasonably be vociferously called an offense. "Why I still work on this investigation is because I know, somewhere in my hometown, something unconventional and bizarro happened. Whether it was aliens or some phenomenon, something did happen, and it wasn't just some coincidence. They wouldn't tell crazy stories just to get big-time attention by the news."

"Oh, okay. I was just curious." A moment of silence filled the air, until the wolf spoke once again in a more hearty tone, saying, "But, hey, I did enjoy catching that robber before he could run with the bag."

"Yeah...But, Ace, doesn't it bother you that a wolf like yourself had to arrest another wolf? I mean, he tried persuading you with 'sticking with the pack' or 'are you truly my pack member' pleas." It seemed like an awkward question to ask, maybe more personal. However, the wolf merely scoffed.

"Please, the only thing I'm sticking with is the law, and my only pack members are the officers in the ZPD. And nobody's not going to change that." The rabbit gave a warm smile after hearing his statement. If there is anything they had in common, it was a passionate dedication to the ZPD. However, she knew little about his motives for becoming a ZPD officer, unlike her passion she had when the rabbit was only a child. Again, each individual had their own framework, and nobody can change it, remembering what the wolf said. "Well, I guess I used most of your time now. Goodnight."

"Goodnight to you, too, Ace," she said back, before the wolf waved her for the last time and departed into the night.

Besides heading home immediately, Judy stopped by at a local, little-known coffee café that opened twenty-four seven. But this specific café only served meals and drinks for vegetarians and prey. Mostly college students, grey and pink-collar workers visit the little café before or after a hard day's work, savoring the quiet atmosphere, comfortable rest, and low-costing meals they bought ranging from ninety-nine cents to as high as nine ninety-nine. It seems a little sad that hardly anybody ever visits this place, as most of the population of Zootopia went to more ubiquitous sites to do whatever. Judy adored this place for its carrot mocha that always had the words _Best Day Ever_ scribbled with syrup on the cream, receiving her amiable laugh in the highest regard to the slender, young goat who made them.

Tonight, she only had carrot juice, skipping a caffeine drink before she had to head home and go straight to bed for another day at work tomorrow. The rabbit sat down at a single circular table, whipping out her iCarrot phone, already located the coffee café's free, accessible Wi-Fi hotspot, the rabbit tapped the MuzzleTime app, and then on her parents' contact number. In just a second, two faces, Mrs. and Mr. Hopps, Bonnie and Stu, also known as mom and dad to Judy, appeared on her screen.

In the far corner of the café, a snow leopard sat alone with his laptop in front of him, his smartphone laying beside his arm. Predators arriving in the vegetarian and prey café was a rare sight to see from the other patrons. However, the leopard's only reason for coming here was the free Wi-Fi hotspot the coffee café offered, connecting his laptop to the wireless LAN network. He'd applied for the Zootopia Times Press, or ZTP, as a daily newspaper journalist yesterday, and, of course, was accepted. And his first day, little exciting news emerged: _Gazelle releases a new album, ZPD arrest wolf after robbery, fireman proposes to waitress when she serves him_. All those blasé reports everyone kept reading with mild keenness.

The snow leopard never signed up to be an average underpaid journalist with a minor commitment to the juicy stories people _actually_ wanted to buy and read. He had more ambitions than that. He wanted stories he could type on his laptop and post it to the ZTP's news site and other online browsing networks with his name labeled with pride and worthy of it. The problem was, what was there to file and report? The only two most wide-ranging news that were ever reported was the Night Howler incident with the savage predators and short-lived successor Dawn Bellwether's species-supremacist conspiracy. Now, those were the juicy news people wanted to read or watch, he thought, thrill suspenseful news.

His phone vibrates, and the snow leopard grasps it instinctively, reading the notifications bar. It was sent from one of his "contacts," a journalist's term for the inside people who gave journalists news to report (one out of two he had) with a message that quickly caught the leopard's keen, blue sapphire eyes.

_hey Danny, i got some news from that 🐰 burrow that might impress u. Trust me, it's 1 of a kind..._


	8. Chapter Six - An Unexpected Encounter

[ ](https://ibb.co/6tz8mSr)

_Day Six_

HIS LEGS THROBBED beyond any feeling he'd ever experienced when strenuously training for his now everlasting mission in a neutral environment, and slinging extra luggage around his shoulder made it worse. Trekking for four days, Ryan now knew how athletes in racewalking felt after twenty to sixty miles of continuous speed walking. However, the difference between him and a racewalking athlete, excluding the fact of an audience watching, is that the former agent had meaningful purposes for trekking, and proof to back it up. The more distance Ryan covered, the high-pitched frequency signal grew louder and more obnoxious, hearing the random signal, possibly around fifty thousand hertz, every now or then.

His stomach growled, much to his anticipation. He'd used up all his food rations and was on the verge of thirst as his Fontus water bottle was only a quarter full. With no water source in sight, besides the little creek he'd passed a couple of days ago, Ryan would suffer from dehydration before starvation at his current rate. But the only thing that kept him going was the signal--that damn ELF signal from an unknown source; however, close by, the signal was leading him blindly through a neutral environment, just mocking him since he'd trained for hostile terrain instead of a mild, comfortable one.

Still, questions about the ELF signal lingered in his mind. Could there be other humans in this world? Or was it another of those humanoid animals, which, thinking about it, would have the accessible technology to send long-range transmissions, that were sending the signal? If that were so, his greatest question is why to send it. Why send it to some random source? Were they expecting him? Obviously, not. Then, what was the reason?

The voice of Pandora, hearing that occasional, feminine voice nearly every hour since day one. But it never annoyed him at any sort. She spoke.

"Ryan, I'm receiving multiple signals—but it isn't the ELF signal this time. It's something different." This news caught Ryan off guard, stunned.

"What do you mean, exactly?" he asked.

"I'm receiving and interfacing with all sorts of transmissions: microwaves, radio waves, Extremely low to Extremely high frequencies, infrared and ultrasound. From what I can gather, maybe more than eighty million signals are interfacing in multifarious locations. To be honest, I haven't felt this way since we left D.C."

"That's impossible..." _Is it?_

"I'm afraid it is possible, Ryan. I don't know how else I can explain it...I'm just as baffled as you are. You have the option to turn back, but if you want to continue, then I'll follow you no matter what. My primary role is to protect and follow all your orders."

Ryan didn't make it this far only to turn tail and run from the unknown. Humanity built itself, not considering the negative parts of its modernization, by learning to open up to the world and never to fear the unknown. Many significant events in mankind's history developed by challenging the unknown: Columbus' journey to the New World, exploring and expanding toward the West, the first launch to space and then landing on the moon, and colonizing planets. _This_ is one of those moments where man challenges the unknown for whoever dominates at the end. It wasn't for the fame that came with it—it was for the progression of mankind for future generations. And now, people back home, people he knew and don't, were waiting for any sign of a new world where humanity could start all over (considering whether there are humans here or not).

Plus, the former agent exhausted all his rations, and soon enough, he'll grow hungry the longer he doesn't find a meal before most of his energy runs dry like a puddle of water in a desert (or the wasteland back on earth). And if there was anyone here who was transmitting that ELF signal that'd kept him going, following blindly, with any luck they would have some food for Ryan. Hopefully, these terrestrials have any sense of hospitality, he thought.

Continuing to follow the rail tracks, Ryan kept trailing alongside the greased-steel rail tracks, one step at a time. Upon reaching the end of the grass and rocky ridge with several coniferous pine trees growing, forming a sort of barrier on each side, several yards spread apart, from the rail tracks. Then, suddenly, he felt the humidity and smelled the natural scent of water. However, something else he could smell also lingered through his nostrils. It was a familiar scent, but he couldn't make it out the smell.

When Ryan approached the source, the moment he squinted his eyes as a gleaming light shined brightly, the former agent fell in utter shock and disbelief at what he saw. Not also was there a vast source of water, most likely fresh, but an enormous city in the middle of it, with the tallest buildings reflecting the sun's light into his eyes at an angle. An actual metropolis! Ryan froze in his steps at the sight of tall and small buildings. At a distance, it appeared the city was just as large as New York, only with fewer skyscrapers.

The former agent took out his optical head-mounted display glasses, and puts them on, using the magnification module to zoom in and get a closer look at the city without actually getting close. Unlike New York, though, the skyscrapers and other structures had very bizarre shapes, bright contrasting colors, and architectural designs to them. In addition to its peculiarities, it appeared to border a desert environment on the right and a lush, foggy forest on the left with mountains in the background.

"Who in God's name would construct and design a city like that?" Ryan said both amazed and bewildered. "And how do you have two totally different environments co-existing in one place?"

"Ryan, I'm detecting the ELF signal again, and it's coming directly from that city over there," Pandora interrupted. "We're getting close."

_Close to virtue or close to death...?_

The entire city appeared to be completely surrounded by vast water, stretching approximately less than a mile apart, like a moat surrounding a castle or fort. Then the former agent remembered the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan in history. The unimaginable man-made city built on the western side of Lake Texcoco, and how the Aztecs gradually constructed their own island to create such a resplendent and awe-inspiring city, many years before Hernán Cortés and his Spanish conquistadors. Nonetheless, this city seemed to have been constructed on a mere island; so whatever history this metropolis had, it probably wasn't too impressive, assuming.

However, unlike Tenochtitlan's causeways, the only connection between the mainland and the actual metropolis is a signal rail bridge. Of course, no signs of upcoming trains, but it didn't mean that there wouldn't be any trains on the bridge. Ryan could trek along the shoreline and search for any causeway or connection, but that could take hours or even days to do, and food rations were exhausted. He didn't need to fret about a water shortage anymore, staring upon the continuous shoreline. Either a train might run him over, or go hungry and eventually starve if there wasn't any other connection. Was this rail bridge seriously the only entrance?

He had two options. One, attempt to cross the rail bridge, but possibly face an upcoming train, and if he jumps off just in time to save his skin, then there was the possibility of drowning from exhaustion if the former agent doesn't make it shore, or dangerous aquatic life that could perhaps make a floating meal out of the human. Two, risk hunger and starvation and trek around the shoreline to search for another "safer" connection; and if there wasn't, then he reached the end of the road. But considering the odds of upcoming trains, since he'd never seen one in this world yet, reckoning that rail transportation is apparently an uncommon source of traveling, Ryan could across the bridge without serve consequences.

As the day grew longer, the sun so gradually falling upon the horizon, Ryan knew he had little time before twilight and nightfall will take full effect. His stomach growls louder, thinking of the hot meals that the city stocked in stores, restaurants, and other commercial centers. The former agent was disciplined to resist desire and temptation; nevertheless, still a needy human being, he couldn't endure the hunger anymore, especially when opportunity stood right in front of him. 

"Pandora, we're crossing that rail bridge," the former agent said with confidence, before receiving a "yes, Ryan" from the human AI without question.

When he began walking on the rail bridge, Ryan's prior thought about whether there were humans in this world or not once again popped into his mind. Could humans have previously settled in this world, and that's their city? But it didn't have to be humans in his world. It could be terrestrial humans in this world, too. On the other hand, what if it was those humanoid animals he encountered back at that farming community—Bunnyburrow? It couldn't be them. This city appeared to been built for much larger beings than rabbits, hares, or even foxes, obviously. And then, randomly, the idea of alien species suddenly came into his mind. Stupid, he thought, utterly ridiculous!

He passed the halfway mark on the rail bridge, eating up about nine or more minutes of his time. He checked, and it was in fact nine minutes and sixteen seconds on his HUD watch. As he continued to cross, the former agent glimpsed at the destination where the tracks led to—a desert biome. Ryan knew exactly what a wasteland felt like, remembering the times as a CIA agent in Somalia. It sucked, and that's all the former agent could describe it. Besides Somalia, Ryan rode in air-tight maglevs across the wasteland, previously called the Midwest United States, where he looked out the besmirched windows to find nothing but dirt, sand, and desolate land and deserted cities as a child. So far, looking straight ahead with the sun glaring in his direction, all he could see is yellow sand, with some naturally made rock formations and sand dunes.

Oh, this reminded him of Somalia perfectly!

Some exhilaration in him boosts sudden energy in his legs, as Ryan began speed walking, and then jogging. An animation in him that hadn't been reviled since he first arrived in this world, and knew it was undoubtedly habitable the moment the former agent took off his helmet and breathed in fresh air. Maybe horrible memories in Somalia triggered a sort of adrenaline rush he had whenever caught in tight situations, and he just needed to run from it. However, unknowingly to the former agent, there was something else to worry more than memories...

"Ryan, I'm detecting a rapid electrical mechanic coming this way!" Pandora said hastily.

"What?"

He stopped in his tracks and looked behind. Indeed, something was coming this way from the mainland at fast speed. It was only a silhouette at first, but it slowly came into visible view, glaring sunlight on its metallic rooftop. A train. An upcoming high-speed train that could easily flatten him in seconds! And whoever was operating that train didn't seem to notice Ryan on the tracks, which was reasonable since their still quite far apart. But it wouldn't stay like that for long.

"Oh, shit!"

Ryan began sprinting at full speed in an instant, not caring whether the train engineer could see him or not. In seconds, he felt acid in his dry throat as he sprinted over each rail tie, while adrenaline exploded through his veins in mass hysteria. The low clanging of train wheels steadily gets louder, boosting more adrenaline within him. Ryan looks back for a second to find the train gaining up and closing fairly fast from behind. He looked straight ahead and the former agent was still a bit far from land—at least several yards away—before he hit the sandy shoreline. Below him is deep, blue water, whether fresh, brackish, or salty without a bottom at sight.

The train was gaining speed, or at least from Ryan's perspective, but it certainly wasn't slowing down either. It's about a hundred yards away from the former agent, and still, nobody seemed to notice him on the monorail. If he were stuck in a situation like this in his world, then those maglevs with computer-controlled systems would've stopped swiftly by linear motors in the EDS system when a human engineer spots him. Reasonably, nevertheless, an engineer operating an old-fashion conventional train wouldn't be able to stop in time without computer-controlled systems and other pre-collision prevention measures.

Ryan began to hate this bygone world and its old-fashioned setup.

While he kept scrabbling for ideas, the train kept coming closer and closer, still not slowing down at all. It would be seconds before it flattens him like roadkill—railkill in this matter. The shoreline, now seeing a sandy beach, was still a distance away. He looked back again, and his heart jumped at the sight of the train that edged nearly a few feet away, seconds from flattening him. He sweat; he felt on edged; Ryan noticed his heart beating faster than he ever imagined. He cringed his teeth until it felt if they're going to crack into tiny pieces. Out of appalling, his world fell to a free fall frenzy. Ear-piercing reverberation to inanimate silence. A racing heart to stock-still muscles. His world went black and it stood still. He felt nothing anymore, like air.

Ryan's mind didn't race anymore. Everything seemed motionless and hallow, if he was going through another portal...He wasn't. Matterless. That's how he described it. Nothing. But was it natural? It couldn't be. However, it was. Nothing. Ryan was just matterless.

Until—he, some conscious within him coming back to life, felt his face thwack onto something dense...


	9. Chapter Seven - Lost in Dismay

[ ](https://ibb.co/CBz3kdx)

NICK WAS LOST in his thoughts, as usual, while he and his partner sat in their parked police cruiser on a shoulder of an expressway in Sahara Square, watching with the LiDAR running for any motorists traveling over the posted speed limit. Besides some commercial vehicles, every motorist on the expressway were traveling at the posted speed limit. Much to Judy's satisfaction, as Zootopia's citizens were following regulated road rules with accordance by law, keeping the street much safer. However, Nick never found it amusing to look at other vehicles pass by, watching numbers change slightly on the LiDAR's screen. On the other paw, it gave him a chance to finally spend time with his partner, after days of nonstop tutoring the newbie with Judy, who, herself, seemed very confident in Ace's ability to work independently now.

She taught the young wolf well and accordingly the last few days, and he listened carefully to every ZPD guideline and firsthand experience the rabbit taught him. He, with the help of Judy, arrested another wolf after robbery; they went on frequent patrols in every district, letting him get used to each districts' diverse environment firsthand, not that the Academy didn't teach rookies too well on handling situations in different environments, some newbies needed some personal experiences before actually handling on-duty police work in real life. It was her own certain way the rabbit like to teach Ace, again, not criticizing the Zootopia Police Academy's ability to teach rookies decent law enforcement duties and other basic guidelines.

Now the young wolf was paired with another wolf and a lion, at least he'd be spending time with predators than prey, as he seemed to fit in much better with members of his own kind. But at least his first day was definitely smother than the rabbits's in terms of associating with other officers, Judy reflected, remembering the quiet laughter she received with her first assignment as a meter maid. Man, she couldn't stand to do that again.

"Let's see sixty, sixty...sixty-three...and sixty-five," Nick said, gripping one paw on the steering wheel. Judy noticed her partner's change of focus, still holding his smartphone in the other, visibly still on.

"When did you decide to focus on task?" she said sarcastically, receiving one of Nick's mischievous smiles, setting the phone down in a cup holder.

"After I graduated boot camp. But I wouldn't say you're talking to Private Ryan, you're talking to a sly fox, dumb bunny," He jest, but in truth the last part was a reminder for the Glazed Tuesday donut feud between the rabbit and the fox. Judy usually outsmarted the fox out of his own game, hustles, he called them. But knowing her more, Nick worked up some new comebacks to say or do whenever she, or thought so, hustled him. He got better at it, but just a tad.

He took a quick glance out his side window, then observing the LiDAR's screen with his keen, emerald eyes for any jump speed vehicles, before turning back to his partner, whose face held a certain smirk of her own. Like Nick with his routinely smug smiles and grins, the rabbit had a particular smile that meant either mischievous or wily, before she said or did something that deviously outsmarted him in his own game.

"Says the fox who didn't get valedictorian at the Academy, unlike his valiant partner," she shot back in self-satisfaction, earning a mocking scowl from him. However, what she said uttered undeniable truth that made her look professionally advanced than him, which he couldn't doubt in all honesty. She had more dedication about being a cop than the fox did, but had the same amount of verve in him when he—tried—to enlist into the Junior Ranger Scouts as Judy with the ZPD. But those memories weren't worth bringing back.

The self-satisfied Judy reached for the glove compartment and pulls out a backlog of old papers that'd been crammed like trash inside, after a suspicious feeling kicked within her. She sighed. The rabbit knew the only person who might have done this, and he was sitting right next to her in plain sight, as he pretends not to notice the mess he previously made. The mildly irritated rabbit glared at Nick, still pretending not to notice, avoiding any eye contact, before going through and shuffling paper around. Most of these were old letters from people in the bad side of Zootopia, looking at the addresses stamped on the front, and more overdue payment notices dating days to weeks prior. He was still having short fees on his new apartment, even though the fox said he'd handled it and didn't need any help from anyone, including Judy.

"Why didn't you tell me you still had rental troubles?" she asked worriedly, closing the glove compartment tight until a sharp _click_ was heard. But she held some of the crumbled up papers in her paws, one dating four days ago and another a week, while fox merely kept his eyes on both the LiDAR and Judy.

"I told ya, I can handle it myself. It's not weighing me down..."

"It says here you owe nine hundred dollars on last month's rent," she said, her amethyst eyes trailing along the words of the notice that was dated last week. "And here you owe twelve hundred for all overdue payments in total." She read the other.

"Look, I don't need someone to tell me otherwise." His voice became irate and stern, indicating no room for any objections or retorts to his parry; his life already agitated as it is, and he didn't need worrisome remarks from his partner to add to his list.

Evasively, before his partner could unruly object, he leaned over to the console and switched the two-way radio to another channel, wondering if there was any news over the transmission device. Judy tried turning it back to the original channel out of annoyance, until a voice over the two-way radio broke their short-lasted, awkward conversation.

_"Cruiser one-thirty-nine to any available cruisers in Sahara Square. We have a ten-fifty near Tunisia Beach at Sahara Square. Cause: ten-sixty-six, over."_

"Ten-four, cruiser one-forty-seven to one-thirty-nine, what's your call?" Nick said into the receiver, earning Judy's full attention when she heard "ten-sixty-six" over the radio. The thoughts of the overdue payment notices instantly left her mind, leaning close to the console to hear better, even though she could hear perfectly from her keen ears.

_"Ten-four, I don't know what we're dealing with here. But I'm placing a ten-seventy-seven for response at the scene. Again, I don't know what the heck we're dealing with here; nothing like I'd seen before."_

"Cruiser one-forty-seven responding, over and out." Nick leaned back in his seat and prepared to start the cruiser, monitoring the road as cars and trucks flew pasted them from their spot on the side of the expressway. Now, besides staring boringly at a LiDAR screen and expressway all day, the fox had motive to respond to a public disturbance scene that, by the speaker's baffled tone, sounded quite atypical for minor public disorder. Judy, too, felt the same feeling as the fox. Except she didn't feel stimulated, but inquisitive.

Judy had a feeling whatever this is, it might have a connection to the supernatural incidents at Bunnyburrow. But as a instant vibration in her pocket suddenly breaks her thinking, while the rabbit takes out her phone habitually and looks at a notification bar from her Furbook that said Rare sight near Sahara Square! from several users on social media. Then Nick's phone vibrates. She taps the bar, while she felt the cruiser swerve and bump onto the expressway, and the first sight she saw is a blurry picture of a two-legged being, hardly recognizable, in mostly white dashing as a train several feet behind him. And at this point, it was clear to say that her wary feeling proved triumphant.

Judy reflected a connection between this unknown sight on Furbook by eyewitnesses at the scene and the supernatural incident at Bunnyburrow. The unknown being appeared mostly white and had similar physical appearances with primates. Yes, she thought, there is a connection. It added up without a single blemish from both sides of the story...

****************************************

"What?" Total surprise and disbelief uttered from Judy's mouth at her parents story.

 _"It's true, though,"_ Stu said over the screen, as the look on his face told no lie, Judy saw. _"This creature stood on two legs and held a weapon to your uncle's head. Your cousin caught sight of it and screamed to the top of her lungs, and the whole family rushed over to see what was goin' on. It was terrifying!"_

"Is Uncle Jeremiah alright, though? Is the family alright? What did it do afterwards?" The rabbit rushed with questions in haste as panic took over from her calm character. The thought of her family in danger would make any one overprotective and emotionally stressed over their siblings. And Judy got a good whiff of it too, after she left for Zootopia and her parents tried hiding the fear of their daughter moving into a city with predators within it, especially foxes.

 _"We're fine, Honey,"_ Bonnie assured her in a gentle tone. _"The whole family's fine. But for the creature, it lowered its weapon and ran away as soon as Jackson and Nancy started taking pictures. It seemed more curious in us than we were of it."_

She sighed in relief, and then said out of slight sympathy, "Was it scared?"

Her parents looked at their daughter and then at each other in blank stares, if they'd not understood the question the first time. Just when Judy was about to ask again, her mother spoke with mild demeanor. _"I think it was just curious, Judy."_ Her mother seemed reluctant to tell her the truth, and the rabbit could easily tell by the oddly looks they expressed. She wanted to press her mom and dad for the truth, but the rabbit's current state of weariness, not to mention her parents' wary distress due to today's encounter, she had no energy to fight them over the phone.

They continued to talk, changing the subject from the unknown creature to simple conversations, before Judy ended MuzzleTime with a sweeten goodbye as she drunk the rest of her carrot juice. She placed her smartphone in her uniform pocket, and prepared to throw away her empty cup and leave; however, before she even left her seat, a snow leopard approached her table, caring a satchel around his shoulder.

The rabbit peered at the tall, young snow leopard standing so hesitantly in front of her. His appearance wasn't so different from other snow leopards in Zootopia. His fur was thick with the same natural color and pattern: smoky gray with black and white rosette-like spots. He had a stocky physique, but slender at the same time. And those piercing bright, blue eyes of all mammals. But rather than leave immediately, seeing as the predator wanted to speak with her, Judy remained in her seat, putting on one of her welcoming smiles. He returned on back, however, lightly.

"Hi, of course, you must be Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD's first rabbit officer and hero after disclosing the dreadful Night Howler conspiracy," he said, before taking a seat at the same table, folding his wide paws. "It's such an honor to meet you for the first time."

"Thank you." Her smile grew larger, until her teeth started showing. The first predator she first meet (in her life) that didn't discriminate the rabbit for being a mere, small prey out of prejudice. Even when it came naturally for some animals to greet other so biased in Zootopia. However, this snow leopard was oddly different from others—in a good way, though. "Don't mind me asking, but what did you want Mr...?"

"Snowpaw. Daniel Snowpaw from Zootopia Times Press."

He beamed and extended his wide paw for her to shake. She took the leopard's paw and shook, then saying, "Judy Hopps, ZPD."

"And to answer your first question," he rested his phone under the table, "I couldn't help but overhear something about an unknown being appearing near Bunnyburrow. You see, I taken great interest in this story, too."

"Really?" She sounded half-surprised and half-skeptical. The rabbit couldn't tell whether her cynicism was promptly true or a flaw. News reporters, including ZTP, publicized her community's supernatural stories about extraterrestrial beings and averted and adjusted it to news articles that'd made rabbits in Bunnyburrow sound or look like complete, superstitious kooks. It irritated the rabbit very much after everything the news said about Bunnyburrow. They weren't crazy, they were telling the truth, she said every time the news used the words "crazy" and "far-fetched" when regarding those who told their extraterrestrial encounters.

"Yeah, I know you find it hard to believe, but I do find this to be a very convincing story." Before she could interrupt, the snow leopard took out his laptop, opened and automatically on, showed a previous email conversing about an unknown being spotted in Bunnyburrow. At the end, the predator showed a blurry picture taken at the scene earlier today. Although she was about to question the legitimacy of this picture, Judy saw far off in the distance her uncle and siblings. The shocked expression on her face told Daniel everything he knew. _She knew it all along. This rabbit was only testing my honesty,_ he thought. _Well, do you believe me now?_

"I'm sorry if I doubted you," she apologized, truly. "I've been through so much lately." It wasn't a complete lie. Judy went through some phases after her town was criticized for the extraterrestrial stories. She had to blend from a irate and frustrated countenance to her professional mien in the police force. And everything seemed so confusing—not knowing what to believe anymore. "Excuse me, what did you want me for, now?"

"I just want a simple interview with you about the incident in Bunnyburrow, and vise versa. Start from the beginning if you would," he took out a notepad and pencil, "and tell me everything you know about what happened in Bunnyburrow."

At first Judy wanted to reconsider her decision and leave. However, could this snow leopard really be the only news reporter that believed her and her community's stories? Or was this a trap? She didn't have full authority to give away any investigational evidences without consulting with higher ranks, including the ZPD chief. But the Bunnyburrow Incident investigation was called off, and she volunteered to continue the case independently, as long as it didn't interfere with other cases. So would it be wrong to share everything the rabbit knew about this supernatural occurrence?

As Daniel waited, patiently holding his pencil at an angle, Judy shook her doubts off and spoke while the ZTP reporter swiftly wrote down every important detail she uttered. Unknowingly, though, under the table, the snow leopard had his smartphone's record app on, catching every word the rabbit officer said without her even knowing of its existence.

The snow leopard merely gave a grin of appreciation at the end of their interview.

****************************************

He let out a loud, painful groan, while the side of his face itched irritably in half-buried grained silt. When he regained consciousness, the first thing he saw is yellowish blurred specks all over him. He weakly moved his hand into sight and clutched a handful of...sand. Of course, he thought, sand of all things! Then the memories of Somalia reappeared in his mind, and sand was the first thing that Ryan will never forget in the desolate, war-torn, godforsaken country.

Instantly, the memory of his mission and the train shot him back to reality before he had even realized where the former agent was. His eyes opening wide at the realization of his position. Ryan heard the sound of tides crashing on the beach shoreline, while the incoming water kept slapping his legs and retreating back in a continuous cycle. What happened and how he got here, on a beach, was unanswerable. All he remembered was hearing a booming train behind him and then darkness. What exactly happened could never been so baffling for the former agent.

Slowly Ryan got to his knees, raising his weak right foot and then his left as soon as he gained balance. Half of his face is covered with sand, and parts of his hair was wet, matted, and felt like silt was stuck all over. Ryan's fade haircut, redone with an odorless gel in his hygiene kit after the crash, was ruined once again. On the other hand, it could have been worse, he might've landed directly on the sand and broke a few bones from the intense height of the monorail, seeing the tall structure above his head.

As Ryan gazed at his surroundings, grasping the satchel still around his shoulder, wet yet perfectly unharmed, before stopping directly in front of him. The joy of being alive unexpectedly replaced by wariness and confusion. The first thing in sight, is lion cub standing on two legs, like any other bipedal being, holding a plastic toddler-sized bucket and shovel, staring at him in awe in his starfish swimsuit. Ryan could tell, by the sight of the cub without his mane, that this world was a _Madagascar_ universe. This had to be a dream, of course.

"If you're looking for New York City, Alex, then you definitely missed the boat," Ryan said quietly, just as the lion cub ran away playfully; the innocence of children.

However, instead of a lion cub, Ryan's eyes met with the stares of, not humans--but other bipedal animals. His eyes shot wide at all the animals staring at a distance. Ryan knew what animals were, but these were different. As he observed, they stood on two legs, similar to bipedal beings, more specifically human beings; they even wore clothes, some in swimsuits and others in casual summer clothes, except for shoes that left their feet bare for him to see the different anatomical structures.

Wait! He remembered the rabbits...the ones at that community known as Bunnyburrow. These animals shared a same physical structure as the rabbits—human-like appearance. So there were more of these humanoid animals in this world, he thought. In a world where humans never existed, judging by the glances from the animals, as they looked as if they never seen Ryan's kind before. So, assuming, the city he saw earlier didn't belong to humans, it belongs to anthropomorphic animals the former agent had no knowledge of.

What puzzled the former agent, though, was the fact that these animals appeared to be speaking with actual words his ears couldn't quite grasp. Their words most certainly were about him, as Ryan's wariness grows to an extent. Some had more curious expressions than fear and trepidation from his anthropomorphic contemporaries. When he stood up, some of the animals froze in their tracks. When he tried walking, they backed away cautiously at Ryan's sight. He took the time to scrutinize his surroundings. All around Ryan saw lions, cheetahs, giraffes, zebras and camels, and other tiny animals like sheep, pigs and gophers, he thinks. It was only a few; however, his presence became known, and more animals arrived.

The situation became pressing as the crowd started growing in numbers. Ryan remembered his armaments in his satchel, placed in the waterproof bag before he even walked on the bridge. Smart part for him. The former agent slowly and carefully placed the satchel on the ground, fearing if a slight minatory move would instigate an attack. He unzipped, bringing all stares on him now, and bit by bit the former agent took out his Beretta. The crowd moved back further as soon as they saw the alien-like weapon held in his hand. Ryan speculated the animals to attack him by this point, but they seemed even more curious and terrified then before. By their reactions, they knew what he held, or at least he figured, and it quickly escalated the suspenseful situation.

Animals drew their mobile phones from their pockets and beach carry-ons. All eyes, all whispers, pointing and staring directed at Ryan. More kept arriving. His heart beating rapidly until the waves crashing behind him ceased to be heard and all he could hear is whispers and the beating of his heart. He felt himself getting colder and colder, as his face turned pale. Then a ringing. Yes, a ringing! Was it the crowd? No...what crowd? All he saw were the distinct faces of people—Somalis and Pan-Asians. They stood their lifelessly on the sandy beach. They gave looks of disdain, horror and grief. The ringing steadily grew louder; the crowd of Somalis and Pan-Asians grew; the dome above him and the heat around him. The ringing kept getting louder and louder, until it felt like a ear-piercing high pitch frequency. Louder, louder, louder!

"Stop it..." he whispered through cringed teeth. They whispered, stared and pointed at him; louder, louder, louder ringing! "Stop it...!"

In the midst of utter overwhelming emotions, Ryan raised his Beretta in the air...and open fires.


	10. Chapter Eight - Beginning

[ ](https://ibb.co/CBz3kdx)

_"WE HAVE A ten-thirty-three at Tunisia Beach in Sahara Square—I repeat—we have ten-thirty-three at the Tunisia Beach in Sahara Square! Suspect is armed and dangerous!"_ the two-way radio blared with the adrenaline of a ZPD officer rushing through his veins, Nick could tell. He had experienced the same sensation as well to know exactly how serious this situation alternated.

"This is Officer Hopps, we're two miles from the scene," she said in her professional manner. "Arrival time: two minutes, over and out."

"We dealing with the same guy, Carrots?" Nick asked, making a sharp right turn onto a two-way road, leading toward Tunisia Beach. The bulky police cruiser leaned and rocked with every lurch the fox made. Red and blue lights and blaring sirens on top, while motorists near by slowed down and increased space between them and the law enforcement vehicle.

"Certain," she replied plainly. "But I'm not sure what we're dealing with here."

"Obviously someone lost his spot to a large hippo, or something, and got a bit too carried away." The fox joked, yet his expression never changed, keenly focused on the road and motorists ahead of him in their bulky cruiser. The rabbit had no time to make any disapproving frowns at her partner's humor in a time like this, before the cruiser came a complete stop near a large billboard that read Welcome to Sunny Tunisia Beach, and the crowd of animals gathering around in a mammal barrier.

With their path blocked, Nick and Judy stepped out from their cruiser in order to squeeze through the crowd, until a lioness in a long summer beach blouse and dark sunglasses came running up to the cruiser, frantically saying, "Officers, the creature went that way! It took off in my husband's desert bike!" She pointed toward the two-way road up ahead, leading to Sahara Square.

"Are you or your husband hurt, ma'am?" It was customary protocol for ZPD officers to assist any civilian in need before turning to the crime, unless the perpetrator was currently harming a civilian, which was a rare situation for the ZPD. The lioness shook her head, indicating her wellbeing. "Alright, we're going to get your husband's bike back. I promise."

"Thank you so much," the lioness said with utter gratitude and relief.

"No problem, ma'am, we're just doing our jobs," Nick interrupted, flashing his ZPD badge, as the sun reflected several glares from his golden emblem. His ego getting to him, he flashed a grin. This kind of thing never impressed Judy, not even the slightest. If she had the ability to kick him, she would.

They climbed back in the cruiser, with Judy in the driver's seat this time. Nick picked up the two-way radio and called for backup in Sahara Square, where this "creature" was heading. Several ZPD units patrolling within Sahara Square responded to the fox's report and are currently scouting for the unidentified being. However, they needed to wait for precise orders from ZPD station before taking any drastic action—unless the perpetrator is labeled as a threat to public safety. Hopefully, though, Judy and her partner wouldn't need to use drastic force, since this unknown being is unregistered as any animal in zoology, apparently.

While the cruiser took off on the road again, Judy couldn't help but think of this unidentified creature again. She knew, by this point, that this is certainly the being who encountered her home community and held a weapon to her uncle's head. She quietly thanked the snow leopard back at the café, even though he wasn't here at the moment. Nick never heard the rabbit, as he checked his smartphone for any possible sightings of the creature via news and social media. So far, he said, the news hasn't picked up on this, but the story is exploding through Furbook, Tweet, Instawolf, and Zoogle.

"Geez, this thing's all over the Internet," Nick said, astonished, which he rarely expressed during work, or any time really. "Now this is going viral all over ZooTube." On his smartphone, a video was playing of a beaver couple, obviously on vacation, before the camera's view suddenly turned to a strange creature in white sprinting like a madman on the monorail bridge as a train came speeding behind him, and then jumping off in a uncontrollable plunge dive into shallow water, near the shoreline.

"Carrots, tell me, what are we dealing with here?" Nick asked.

"I—I don't know, Nick. I really don't know..."

****************************************

Ryan jumped off the desert bike, kicking the kickstand in place, while leveling the single cylinder, two-stroke powered motorbike evenly with the ground. He fell to the mercy of his legs, still weak, taking off the oversized dirt bike helmet that shielded his eyes from dust and sand. He checked his Beretta, strapped firmly in his thigh holster. With a sigh of relief, he thanked the Lord for not actually shooting at someone. The former agent was caught off-guard by the sudden hallucination, and his instinctive emotions took over. However, the ear-piercing shot from his Beretta nearly erupted a panic among the crowd of anthropomorphic animals, which could've resulted with injury or possibly death.

Luckily no one got hurt.

He stared at the arid horizon, gazing upon the enormous city he saw on the mainland. The skyscrapers still gleaming under the sun. However, blocking his path, is a town of intricate clay and rock into an architectural completely akin to structures in Africa. The buildings were all too familiar for the former agent to overlook, memorizing the same looking structures he saw in Somalia. But what stood out to Ryan, was the enormous Palm tree surrounded by an oasis, scaling taller than any other building in the arid town.

He wiped the silt-mixed sweat from his forehead, engendered by the scorching sun above and extreme heat of the arid desert biome. He remembered climate-controlled modules inside the domes and semi-domes in Somalia (aside bio-domes) and how interior temperatures would randomly change from eighty to ninety degrees each day, depending on power and limited maintenance. However, though, out in an actual desert without a dome or climate-controlled modules, the sensation the former agent felt was unbearable. Ryan felt closer to the sun than he'd ever imagined.

"Pandora, climate analysis," he said.

"Yes, Ryan...Current temperature is one hundred and two degrees Fahrenheit with zero percent humidity," she replied.

_Means this place gets zero rainfall, then,_ he thought, kicking the sand under his feet. _Typical for a desert, huh?_

Ryan placed his satchel on the ground, unzipped, and takes out his camouflage poncho. The poncho is mainly designed to activate a camouflage function mode from its smart fabric whenever a threat is near, or in order change its color pattern to the surrounding area, similar to skin coloration, but more realistic, of a chameleon. This made it extremely difficult for beings to spot him from his upper body, however, exposing legs and feet to anyone with a keen eye. He wasn't certain, but if these humanoid animals still have inherited inclination in them, then most would be able to recognize the human, and everything hits the fan all over again. In order to stay anonymous, Ryan needed to keep his distance from anyone who seemed dangerous--physical, mentally and personality.

He slung the poncho over him, squeezing his head through the hole, and pulls the hoody over his head. Ryan strapped on a brim section of the hood, covering areas from his neck to his eyes. If he had a veil, it would be even harder for anyone to identify who or what he was. Sadly, though, neither his sister nor Doctor Helienson did pack a veil for him, maybe because complete camouflage wouldn't be necessary for the former agent with top-tier survival training. 

_But back then it wasn't necessary,_ he thought, _with this city, it's hardly called survival._

The former agent got back on the desert bike, kicking the kickstand back in place, and starts up the motorbike once again. Eventually he needed to discard the bike before anyone saw him with it. The former agent stole the bike from a brawny lion that did have the strength to batter him without lenience, but the bipedal feline was so awed by the sight of the human, that he froze in his place rather than defend his own property. This baffled Ryan greatly. On the other hand, it gave him an early advantage in unfamiliar territory, which luck favored Ryan all of a sudden.

When he approached the arid town, the former agent pondered on all the new challenges he would face in the future. In fact, what future did he have in this world?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the really long update, not to mention the the short chapter. I've been overwhelmed with college work recently and I'm working arduously to make the best grades I can before the fall semester ends. 
> 
> The next chapter will be posted shortly. Comments (whether you're criticizing or not) are welcomed, I will not be offended; in fact, I enjoy feedbacks.


	11. Chapter Nine - In Search for Home

[ ](https://ibb.co/CBz3kdx)

NIGHTFALL EVENTUALLY SETTLED and Ryan was already lost within the arid town. Without guidance, there was no way he could course around the town, or district, seeing how large it is. The former agent was hiding in the shadows of an alley, peeking from the dirty-made corner like a child hiding from his friends in game of hide-n-seek. From what little view he had between him and the corner, Ryan saw several of those anthropomorphic animals. The entire sight was both baffling and impossible to comprehend. Human-like animals?

It was already hard to believe there's civilization in this world, but a civilization created by humanoid animals of various species? It did, or at least somewhat, explain the out of the blue transmission he'd received before crash landing in a lake and possibly the ELF signal that beeped randomly. Are these the terrestrial organisms Doctor Helienson explained? No doubt they're healthy stimulus organisms. Ryan could've at least received more specific information on these inhabitants, then his situation would have been a lot easier to handle before stumbling upon a metropolis like a lost child.

He pulled the hood of the poncho over his head and walked off. Where to go, he thought. But first Ryan needed to figure out how and where to find food and shelter. Do these anthropomorphic animals have currency like humans in his world? If so, how would he get some?

_One step at a time,_ Ryan thought. _Get money first, then worry about food and shelter._

The district was alive, living and breathing. Without doubt; its lights and glamour brought an oddly attention to Ryan in a way even the former agent could not understand. It is if Los Vegas was reborn from the godforsaken wasteland into its former, glamouring glory. Now he was entering an area where buildings were made of glass and looked more modernized for upscale leisure and fun nighttime activities. Perhaps this was a resort district; a tourist trap. Ryan assumed for the best, but for the worst as well. If this district is known for attracting visitors—meaning more of those anthropomorphic animals in one place—then the chances of being noticed would be doubtless.

Even currently walking down the street, Ryan was receiving weird looks from other animals passing by the human. Keeping his head, he still got eyes on him. His last encounter brought questions that still currently linger in his mind, including the one he'd continued cramming in the back of his head, pestering him. Were there literally no humans in this world? That's a horrifying thought. However, at the same time, it was almost reliving. No man-made disasters, no human conflicts or wars, no other negatives; plus, he wouldn't have to socialize with beings that have absolutely no knowledge of him, making the lone human temporarily anonymous.

Ryan smiled at this relief, before the former agent caught sight an ATM outside a general store. The place was currently closed, surprisingly since every other commercial centers were open twenty-four seven. He looked all around his surroundings. Nobody was near by. It was empty, surprisingly. Ryan in his teenage years hardly got into any trouble, at least, not severely. His parents always threatened him, remembering their exact words, "If you ever get arrested by the cops, don't expect either your dad and I to get you out. You did something wrong and unlawful, you can pay for your bail."

_Mother, father, I know you can't hear me now, but let me tell you, sometimes doing wrong can save your life,_ he thought and held a distinct expression if he were actually talking to his beloved parents. _But, stealing in another world full of humanoid animals were your considered an alien is an exception, I guess..._

Finding himself in a desperate no-choice scenario, Ryan took a deep breath and approached the ATM. Still nobody was around. Good. The former agent held his bracelet closer toward the machine and says, "Pandora, sync to ATM."

"Yes, Ryan," the AI complied.

Shortly, a holographic screen is projected from the bracelet with all the basic mechanics and computer systems of the teller machine. Then, Ryan opened up two windows. One was for decryption software, enabling him to unlock the most secured encrypted files. The second was encryption software, protecting the former agent from other users during data transit and even sabotaging systems by more sophisticated cipher. He pressed the first window and began typing codes below the cyber security cipher. It would take him minutes before he could find the key. However, the process only took just fifteen seconds, before the former agent gained full access of the ATM.

"Already I'm in?" he said, astonished. _Are you kiddin' me? You might as well be hiring a monkey as a security guard. Is the technology here that far behind?_

He had no time at the moment to complain. He had no reason to complain at all. As long as the former agent infiltrated the system, then what is there to really worry about? He gained full access; now use it!

As Ryan installed the encryption into the ATM's system, the machine's secure crypto-processor, and all other security system software, went static on the holographic projection. Waiting habitually, the hologram soon displays the complete ATM data systems, including cyber files and history from users to banks. Every person with a banking account, with personal information, Ryan could now see. He had the technological power to gain even the moot secured information—not just here, but anywhere. With a widespread encryption, the former agent could gain access to all accounts in the arid district, spreading to every ATM like a virus. However, that wasn't his priority at the moment.

To prevent anyone from tracing or even knowing of his existence via ATM and cyber banking, Ryan needed to both obtain small amounts of cash from multiple accounts and from the most affluent people, generally referring to upperclass millionaires. Money too large to count, they wouldn't notice a few coins missing from their industrial-sized piggybanks. Would they? The risks were far-fetched, yet so close at the same time.

_Screw it,_ he thought, before tapping on three selected millionaires: two corporate CEOs and one registered "unknown," which the last account originated from a place called Tundratown. _I guess this city doesn't invest much into industry. Now that's the opposite of normal, not to mention unprosperous._

He typed in the amount he wanted to draw:

_50,000_

No, he thought, that's the average savings for a working class American in his world. He typed again:

_100,000_

It still didn't seem enough to last a few weeks, though. He typed in another amount:

_300,000_

One hundred thousand whatevers from each millionaire from the bank. That'd seemed fair enough? Ryan was about to press **Enter** to draw the cash, until his finger stopped halfway. It was tempting, or was it greed? The money was desperate, but it isn't that desperate. How much would meals and shelter be? In fact, Ryan didn't know the how much those two commodities coast in this world. Furthermore, what was he looking for in terms of food and shelter?

Then, Ryan realized he broke the same personal doctrine again...think conscientiously.

What the hell is wrong with you? the former agent shouted in his head, frustration building up in waves, one wave after the other. Then he realized another thing... Am I actually talking to myself? Was I talking to myself this whole time? That's the first sign of insanity. Oh, God...

In disarray, Ryan typed in another—his last—amount before screaming "screw it" in his head:

_3,000,000_

Satisfied, Ryan pressed Enter, and then the ATM began spitting money from the slot in uncontrollable spurts. The former agent kicked the satchel in place where the money fell, stuffing the interiors. All sorts of assorted cash were expelled from the teller machine, ranging from fifty to hundred dollar bills, as Ryan could see. It was bountiful in both the amount and number of banknotes inside his satchel. The former agent checked his surroundings one last time, before the ATM finally ceased to give him money.

With his satchel nearly stuffed to its capacity, Ryan picked up the now heavy satchel, then saying, "Pandora, sync back to bracelet."

She complied and Ryan reseted the ATMs systems with a twenty second countdown. That gave him enough time to flee the scene before...well, before something happens. So far nobody in the arid district seemed to spot him running around a resort area like a vigilante. Perhaps everyone was too busy gambling, getting drunk, and having fun to notice strange, eerie sightings.

_Hey, maybe these humanoid animals aren't that different from humans after all,_ Ryan thought.

Once everything seemed clear, the former agent strapped the satchel over his shoulder and raced to another alley between a mud-made apartment and gift shop.

****************************************

In his dimly lit apartment, Daniel retreated back to his bed after a long day at the ZTP. This time, though, he came back from work in complete satisfaction. Another article he wrote made top-three for the most read in the _Zootopia Times Press_. It wasn't much, since his previous article about an unknown creature spotted in Bunnyburrow made the top. It didn't take much to convince the renown hero of Zootopia, Judy Hopps, to spit out a convincing story. He didn't know much about rabbits and how their psychology worked, but the snow leopard knew how to coax mammals to give him stories. And that strategy worked every time, too.

His back rested against his pillow, placed between the metal bed headboard and Daniel's bare back. The snow leopard, when alone in his apartment, wore no clothes, including boxers. Expressing the Natural Animal, called by therapists, is a technique for stress relief where mammals undress completely and evince the natural animal they are with certain physical activities and yoga. Daniel completed his daily yoga prior, releasing any physical and psychological stress he had during the day. It'd helped him throughout college and his career.

The soothed snow leopard stretched both arms and legs on the bed, before retrieving his laptop beside him, along with his smartphone, paper and pencils. He rested his laptop on his chest, feeling the warmth of the base touch his white underpart fur. Already on, Daniel swiped his fingers across the touch pad and used the others to click buttons. The snow leopard previously owned a wireless mouse for his laptop to make the device more user-friendly; however, either he lost it or the mouse was stolen, when Daniel moved into his apartment in Savanna Central. Consequently, the snow leopard was forced (since he had no money to spare) to apply more labor when working.

Daniel clicked on an icon for Zoogle. When the page popped up, the first thing he typed is News, before clicking the search button. Again, more blasé stories that mammals read with mild keenness, the leopard thought. Truly unimpressive, in all honest. But, out of the blue, one news article attracted Daniel's eyes. The article was titled: _STRANGE SIGHTING IN TUNISIA BEACH,_ before it continued under the title _UNKNOWN MAMMAL GOES VIRAL_. His tail curled up and then stiffens.

In a flash, Daniel grasped his phone faster than a cheetah on a race track, opened it up, and typed in a swift text.

_hey, did u know the creature is here? In Zootopia??_

He waited for seconds before he finally got a reply.

_No. Why? Is it here?_

_So nobody else knows besides the witnesses and readers,_ the leopard thought.

The reporter who wrote the article was a co-worker Daniel knew personally at the ZTP. The pig (literally) happened to stumble upon the news without anyone knowing, including him, until he wrote and posted his article online for millions of readers to pore over. It angered the leopard to a boiling point. It was his story and he missed a perfect opportunity. It pissed him off, since he was in Tundratown, bordering Sahara Square, this very day. The snow leopard took a deep breath, closed the laptop and setting aside. He lay flat on the bed, stretching his arms and legs out. The stress reduced quickly and satisfyingly.

He stared up at the beige ceiling. The dim lighting of the room, already having its drowsy effect on the snow leopard, seemed to get darker and darker to Daniel. He realized why and instinctively knew the solution to that drawback. He drew himself under the thick covers of his bed, still naked—but sleeping in his nude state was not uncommon, because he did it every night as soon as the snow leopard completed his daily expressing animal therapy session—and turned off his lamp on the nightstand. Before he took the dark, silent void called sleep, Daniel wondered, thinking from this creature's perspective, _What is the purpose of coming here?_

**Author's Note:**

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> 
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